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Library of Congress.^ 









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IgUNITED STATES OF AMERICA.^! 



MEMOIR 



OF 



BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL 

ROBERT OGDEN TYLER, 



U. S. ARMY, 



TOGETHER WITH HIS J(WRNAL 



OF 



TWO MONTHS' TRAVEL 



BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. 



iPRINTED FOR PRIVATE C!RCULATION.\ 



PRESS OF 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., PHILADELPHIA. 
1S7S. 



Ik 



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47508 




TO 



MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN M. SCIIOFIELD, 

U. S. ARMY, 

ONE OF THE MOST DEVOTED OF HIS FRIENDS, HIS CLASS- 
MATE, AND FOR SEVERAL YEARS ON THE PACIFIC 
COAST HIS COMMANDING OFFICER, 

THIS TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY 

OF 

ROBERT OGDEN TYLER 

IS HEREBY DEDICATED. 



PREFACE. 



For the following record of the military career of Robert 
Ogden Tyler, his family are indebted to that distinguished 
soldier and scholar, General George W. Cullum, U. S. Army. 

The journal of "Two Months' Travel in British and Farther 
India" is selected from the accumulated correspondence of 
many years, — from letters written from every State and Ter- 
ritory of his own country where duty called him, and from 
the old countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa, to which his 
travels extended. It tells of his interesting experiences of 
Oriental life, and will enable his friends to see, through eyes 
now closed, alas! forever, the imperishable monuments and 
barbaric splendors of the most luxurious empire of the East. 

Wedded only to his country, with none left to bear his 
name or transmit his noble characteristics, he lives in the 
history of a most eventful period, and in the hearts of num- 
berless surviving- friends. 

Hartford, 1878. 



IN MEMORIAM. 



ROBERT OGDEN TYLER, 



ROBERT OGDEN TYLER. 



Brevet Major-General Robert Ogden Tyler, U.S. Army, 
son of Frederick and Sophia Tyler, was born December 22, 1831, 
in Hunter, Greene County, New York, and died December 
I, 1874, at Boston, Massachusetts, having attained nearly the 
age of forty-three years. His paternal grandfather was a 
soldier of the Revolution ; and three of his paternal uncles 
were officers of the United States Army, of whom one. Gen- 
eral Daniel Tyler, was graduated at the Military Academy in 
1819.* 

* General Tyler derived his name from one of his paternal ancestors, 
Robert Ogden, of Elizabeth, New Jersey. His grandfather, Daniel Tyler, 
of Brooklyn, Connecticut, a graduate of Harvard College in 1771, married 
for his first wife the daughter of General Israel Putnam, with whose com- 
mand he served as Adjutant at the battle of Bunker Hill, and subsequently 
during the war of the Revolution. His second wife, the grandmother of 
Robert Ogden Tyler, was Sarah Edwards, eldest daughter of Judge Timothy 
Edwards and Rhoda Ogden, of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and grand- 
daughter of President Jonathan Edwards and Sarah Pierrepont, his wife. 

9 



lO ROBERT OGDEN TYLER. 

When young Tyler was seven years old, his family re- 
moved to Hartford, Connecticut, where he received an excel- 
lent English education, and was thoroughly fitted to enter 
college; but his inherited military tastes decided him to become 
a Cadet at West Point. Through the kind offices of the late 
Honorable James Dixon, then a member of Congress from 
Connecticut, and afterwards for many years a Senator of the 
United States, a cadet's warrant was conferred upon him, and 
he entered the Military Academy July i, 1849. His course 
at the Military Academy was creditable, but not brilliant as 
compared with that of some of his distinguished classmates, 
McPherson, Schofield, Vincent, etc. Upon graduation he 
was appointed, July i, 1853, a Brevet Second Lieutenant 
of Artillery, and assigned to duty at Barrancas Barracks, 
Florida. He became a full Second Lieutenant, Third Regiment 
of Artillery, and in the spring of 1854 joined Brevet Colonel 
Steptoe's command, with which he marched from the Missis- 
sippi to the Pacific, spending the winter at Salt Lake ; and in 
the following spring he crossed the alkaline plains and through 
the canons of the Sierra Nevada to San Francisco, taking 

Through the latter he was a descendant of Rev. Thomas Hooker, the founder 
of the first English colony in Hartford. His father, Frederick Tyler, still 
resides in that city, enjoying a vigorous old age, having in his eighty-fourth 
year, with his mind unimpaired, survived most of his generation. 



ROBERT OGDEN TYLER. n 

post at the Presidio. The next year he was stationed at 
Forts Vancouver and Dalles ; was engaged in the expedition 
against the Yakima Indians, and received his promotion, 
September i, of First Lieutenant. Soon after joining his 
company at San Francisco, he was ordered to Fort Yuma, 
California, probably the most uncomfortable of our frontier 
posts. Here he was engaged in the responsible duties of 
Quartermaster, and of conducting several detachments of 
recruits across the hot arid desert of Lower California, to 
which he often afterwards referred as the most disagreeable 
of all his army service. 

Lieutenant Tyler participated, in 1858, in the Spokane ex- 
pedition, being engaged in the combats of the Four Lakes 
and of Spokane Plains, and in the skirmish on Spokane River, 
in all of which contests he bore a most creditable part. He 
was attached, in 1859, to T. W. Sherman's Light Battery at 
Fort Ridgely, Minnesota, which proved to him a valuable 
school of instruction; and the next year he joined his com- 
pany at the Fort Columbus Recruiting Depot, New York 
harbor, where he remained until the breaking out of the 
Rebellion. 

Lieutenant Tyler sailed, in April, 1S61, with the expedition 
intended to relieve Fort Sumter, Charleston harbor. South 
Carolina ; was an unwilling spectator of the bombardment 



12 ROBERT OGDEN TYLER. 

of that almost powerless work ; and returned to New York City 
on the steamer Baltic, which brought off Major Anderson and 
his gallant command. Soon after, he was assigned to duty 
as Inspector-General on the staff of Major-General Patterson, 
which position he relinquished to take command, in May, 
1 86 1, of a Light Battery, with which he assisted in opening 
the communications through Baltimore, Maryland, closed after 
the attack of April 19, upon the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment. 

Lieutenant Tyler was appointed. May 17, 1861, a Captain 
in the Quartermaster's Department, and was immediately 
ordered to Alexandria, Virginia, with Ellsworth's Zouaves, to 
establish depots, from which, during the whole of 1861, sup- 
plies of stores and provisions were distributed to the forces 
in Virginia and around Washington. 

Captain Tyler, September 17, 1861, was next appointed 
Colonel of the Fourth Connecticut Volunteers, a regiment 
which, from bad handling in the Shenandoah Valley, had 
become completely demoralized, and whose rank and file were 
fast deserting their colors. It was under such discouraging 
circumstances that the young Colonel took command; but, 
almost as by magic, these raw, disorderly militia recruits were 
suddenly transformed into disciplined soldiers. He established 
schools for both commissioned and non-commissioned officers; 
gave promotion to the more exemplary and deserving; and at 



ROBERT OGDEN TYLER. 



his post near Washington (Fort Richardson) commenced that 
system of minute, practical instruction, which subsequently made 
this regiment the admiration of the army. His Argus eyes saw 
everything ; all soldierly acts were rewarded, and severe pun- 
ishment was inflicted for every breach of military discipline; 
and, while indulgent to the obedient and prompt to commend 
merit, he was, at the same time, as stern as fate to the derelict 
and the insubordinate. 

Colonel Tyler's regiment, by order of the War Depart- 
ment, became, January 2, 1862, the "First Connecticut Heavy 
Artillery," and continued in the defences of Washington till 
April 4, 1862, when Tyler was assigned to the command of 
the siege-train of the Army of the Potomac, He conducted 
seventy-one pieces of artillery to Yorktown, — the first ob- 
jective in the Virginia Peninsula campaign, — but the enemy 
abandoned the place just as the guns, with much labor, were 
put in battery. With great difficulty the same train was after- 
wards embarked and transported to the "White House" on 
the Pamunkey River. 

In the subsequent movements on Richmond, Colonel Tyler 

received high commendations for the distinguished part his 

regiment took in the capture of Hanover Court-House, and 

in the batdes of Gaines' Mill and Malvern Hill. When 

General McClellan retired upon Washington, Colonel Tyler's 

3 



14 ROBERT OGDEN TYLER. 



regiment did splendid service, in concert with the gunboats, 
in protecting the rear of the army. With incredible effort, 
and under the most trying difficulties, he brought off the entire 
siege-train, saving many of his heavy guns by drawing them 
away by hand. Of his meritorious conduct in this campaign, 
the Adjutant-General of Connecticut officially said: "The high 
reputation for discipline and drill acquired by this regiment, 
during its arduous services in the field, was due in a great 
measure to the acknowledged excellence and superior qual- 
ities of the commanding officer." At the same time the 
President of the United States, in recognition of his brilliant 
services, appointed him, November 29, 1862, a Brigadier- 
General of Volunteers, 

Upon the application of General Burnside, who had suc- 
ceeded McClellan, General Tyler was assigned to the com- 
mand of the artillery of the Centre Grand Division of the 
Army of the Potomac, in which position he did excellent 
service during the battle and bombardment of Fredericksburg, 
Virginia, December 13-15, 1862. 

General Tyler was assigned, May 2, 1863, to the command 
of the "Artillery Reserve" of the Army of the Potomac, which 
played an important part in the battle of Chancellorsville, and 
in the pursuit of Lee's army into Pennsylvania. At the 
battle of Gettysburg this Artillery Reserve comprised over 



ROBERT OGDEN TYLER. jc 

one hundred and thirty guns and more than three hundred 
ammunition-wagons. The grand part which the artillery 
played in this death-struggle with the Confederacy is too well 
known to require description here. Impatiently awaiting the 
signal for action, Hunt, the chief, and Tyler, his able assistant, 
opened with almost one hundred guns, from Cemetery Hill 
to the Round Tops, upon Pickett's magnificent assaulting 
column, tearing vast gaps in the advancing ranks, and 
almost annihilating that proud array of eighteen thousand of 
the best Southern infantry. General Tyler, in this battle of 
the giants, had two horses shot under him, and his coolness, 
. skill, and intrepidity contributed greatly to the success of 
the final struggle. General Meade, in his official despatch, 
warmly commended his "efficient and distinguished services;" 
and Swinton, in his "History of the Army of the Potomac," 
says, "as the batteries exhausted their ammunition it was re- 
placed by the 'Artillery Reserve,' sent forward by its efficient 
chief. General Robert O. Tyler." After Gettysburg, Tyler was 
engaged in the pursuit of the enemy to Culpepper, Virginia ; 
and commanded the artillery in the combat of Rappahannock 
Station, and in the Mine Run operations. From January i 
to May, 1864, he was a division commander in the Twenty- 
Second Army Corps, covering the Capital and the communi- 
cations of the Army of the Potomac; and afterwards, in com- 



1 6 ROBERT OGDEN TYLER. 

mand of a division of heavy artillery, was attached to the 
Second Army Corps. 

On the opening of the Richmond campaign, General Tyler 
was ordered to Belle Plain, to take command of a division 
of heavy artillery, acting as infantry, attached to the Army of 
the Potomac; and in the battles about Spottsylvania, when 
occupying the extreme right, May 19, 1864, he gallantly re- 
pulsed a furious assault of Ewell's Confederate corps in such 
a manner as to win from General Meade a congratulatory 
order, "thanking General Tyler, his officers and men, for their 
gallant conduct and brilliant success in the engagement." 

In the subsequent vigorous pursuit of the enemy by the 
Army of the Potomac, he fought at North Anna, Tolo- 
potomy, and Cold Harbor. In this last terrible battle, lead- 
ing his picked brigade, he was severely wounded by a rifle- 
ball passing through his ankle. Finding himself disabled, he 
sent an order to Colonel Porter, of the Eighth New York 
Artillery, to assume the command; but that accomplished gen- 
tleman, ripe scholar, and gaMant officer had already fallen 
before the foe. The next in rank was the brave McMahon, 
who, with a part of his regiment, had just stormed the op- 
posing intrenchments and planted his colors thereon; but he 
too had been pierced with many wounds, and gave up his life 
in the enemy's hands. Cold Harbor will long be remembered 



ROBERT OGDEN TYLER. 



17 



as the bravest battle and bloodiest butchery of this campaign, 
without accomplishing a single military result. Grant lost not 
less than scveii tJiousand veteran soldiers in this eneaeement, 
and when he ordered a renewal of the assault, " the whole 
army, correctly appreciating what the inevitable issue must be, 
silently disobeyed." For ten days after, so exhausted were 
both armies by the fearful carnage that they lay supine con- 
fronting each other in their trenches. 

Tyler's active military career was now closed; his hitherto 
vigorous constitution had received a shock from which he 
never recovered ; and, as truly remarked by a friend, " al- 
though he long survived the war, he was killed at Cold 
Harbor." 

For his many distinguished services he was brevetted in 
the Regular Army a Major for Fredericksburg; Lieutenant- 
Colonel for Gettysburg ; Colonel for Spottsylvania ; Briga- 
dier-General for Cold Harbor; and Major-General "for gal- 
lant and meritorious services in the field during the Rebellion." 
Besides these well-earned honors, he received a sixth brevet, 
that of Major-General of United States Volunteers, "for great 
gallantry at the battle of Cold Harbor." 

The citizens of Hartford, the abode of his boyhood, pre- 
sented General Tyler with a sword of honor as a token of 
their regard and of their appreciation of his personal gallantry 



1 8 ROBERT OGDEN TYLER. 

at Spottsylvania and Cold Harbor, and the honorable distinction 
he had won in the many engagements of the Civil War. Con- 
necticut, his adopted State, through its legislature, passed a 
graceful resolution, thanking him for his distinguished military 
services in the many battles in which he had won unfading 
laurels. 

After a six months' sick-leave of absence on account of his 
severe wound, he went on duty as Commissioner, on the part 
of the United States, for the disbursement of the Cotton Fund 
for the supply of rebel prisoners ; and this duty having ter- 
minated, he was assigned to the command of the District of 
Delaware and the Eastern Shore (to which Pennsylvania 
was subsequently added), with headquarters in the city of 
Philadelphia. 

Upon the re-organization of the army after the close of 
the war, General Tyler was appointed, July 29, 1866, Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel and Deputy Quartermaster-General, being 
successively stationed, as chief of his department, at Charles- 
ton, South Carolina, Louisville, Kentucky, San Francisco, Cali- 
fornia, New York City, and Boston, Massachusetts. In this 
lesser sphere of action he exhibited the same zeal, energy, 
industry, and conscientiousness that had characterized his 
stirring career in the recent war. 

General Tyler's declining health, consequent upon his 



ROBERT OGDEN TYLER. jg 

wound, induced him to make a trip to Europe in 1868-69; 
and again, in August, 1872, to apply for a year's leave of 
absence for the purpose of making the tour round the 
world. Sailing from San Francisco, he visited Japan and China, 
and from India wrote the journal which accompanies this 
memoir. His long journey brought him no relief; and on his 
return, for month after month — while performing his duties 
with punctilious fidelity — he secretly suffered, growing weaker 
and weaker, till death suddenly closed his brief and brilliant 
career. 

He was buried at Hartford, in the beautiful Cedar Hill 
Cemetery, with the highest military honors. The Governor 
of Connecticut ordered the flags of all the military depart- 
ments of the State to be displayed at half-staff; the public 
offices to be closed on the day he was to be buried ; and four 
companies of the First Connecticut National Guards to be 
detailed, under the command of the Colonel of the regiment, 
to act as a funeral escort to the deceased. 

His devoted sister, Mrs. Cowen, thus writes of him : 
" So closed the earthly career of this gallant officer and true 
soldier. His record tells its own story, but it cannot speak 
of the high qualities which made up the finished character. 
His strict sense of justice ; his perfect integrity and fine sense 
of honor; his devoted love of country and his loyalty to his 



20 ROBERT OGDEN TYLER. 

friends ; his scrupulous regard for the feelings of others ; his 
cultivated mind and warm, affectionate heart, — who can justly 
estimate in words the value of all these characteristics ?" 

GEORGE W. CULLUM, 
Brevet Major- General U. S. Army. 



TWO MONTHS' TRAVEL 



IN 



BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. 



JOURNAL. 



Malta, April 14, 1873. 

My dear Sister, — We travelled so rapidly through India 
that I could not be a frequent correspondent. Consider this 
journal, then, a long-winded series of letters. I have written 
it up usually after a considerable interval of time, partly from 
brief memoranda, but generally from memory. 

I have tried to give you a faithful account of our lives, and 
what passed before our eyes from day to day. I have avoided 
guide-books, and have not done your extensive reading the 
injustice of trying to pass off as my own, extracts from those 
who have written better and more fully on the same topics. 
I feel that I ought to beg pardon for the lack of incident and 
adventure. When advised to seek opportunities to hunt the 
wild beasts of India, I have declined on the ground that I have 
no quarrel with the animals, as they have never injured either 
my relatives or myself I have also pleaded lack of practice. 
My offer, however, to take a day's tiger-shooting in any con- 
venient zoological garden, where the cages were reasonably 
secure, has not been acceded to with any marked alacrity. 

We have avoided rather than sought colonial society, 
knowing that when dinners and junketings commence, sight- 

23 



24 TWO MONTHS' TRAVEL 



seeing is at an end. We have tried, instead, to see something 
of the people and of their habits. 

I should, perhaps, apologize for words of the Indian ver- 
nacular so freely scattered through these notes. They are, 
however, always those in common use. Their purport can be 
readily gathered from the context, and they convey meanings 
which cannot always be expressed by translation or paraphrases. 

I will not deprecate your criticism, as I know your sisterly 
predilections have ever blinded you to your brother's short- 
comings. Yours, 

R. O. Tyler. 
To Mrs. S. S. Cowen. 



Singapore, December i6, 1872. 

J and I arrived this morning from Batavia on the 

good Dutch ship the Baron Bentinck. We betook ourselves 
to the Hotel d'Europe, where we had passed one night on 
our way to Java. We are tolerably well lodged, and feel the 
comfort of spreading out " like the green bay-tree," after 
being so long " cabinned, cribbed, confined" to a ship's state- 
room. The Hotel d'Europe consists of a long line of bar- 
rack-like buildings, with two or three detached quarters, like 
bastions, in front. From one of these floats the United States 
flag, showing the vicinity of the consulate. The " compound," 
rich with flowers, and waving with palms and tropical trees, 
is surrounded by a most eye-blinding whitewashed wall. The 
whole faces on the public square, and that again on the open 
harbor. Around the square stand several monuments and 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. 25 



public buildings, and it is here that at sunset the wealth and 
beauty and fashion of Singapore exhibit themselves. At that 
hour may be seen every kind of conveyance, from the liveried 
equipage and outriders of the Governor of the Straits Settle- 
ment to the cab-like public gharry with its rat of a horse. Gigs 
(here called buggies), horsemen, pony- wagons, victorias, and 
dog-carts, with the most motley crew riding therein, — Euro- 
peans, Chinese, Parsees, Malays, Indian Baboos, and occasional 
sailors from men-of-war in the harbor, — whirl in an ever- 
turning kaleidoscope of color, costume, feature, and race 
around the public drive, all with a background of warm clouds 
lit by the setting sun. As soon as the arrival of a stranger 
is known at the hotel, he is besieged by a swarm of guides, 
body-servants, barbers, tailors, washermen (dhobes), cane- 
dealers, and peddlers, seeking the patronage of the new- 
comer. The first thing to be done is to employ a servant. 
Without this appendage a gentleman loses caste at Singa- 
pore. He who runs his own errands, carries his own 
bundles, packs his own luggage, and brushes his own clothes, 
shall remain unattended at breakfast, neglected at dinner, and 
from his apartment, without a bell, shall cry " Boy !" unan- 
swered, along the piazzas of the hotel. With a servant you 
are saluted by the title of "master." He enforces in himself 
and on others the reverence which is your just due. He 
salaams you on your approach, going through the motion of 
placing on his forehead the earth you have honored with your 
tread, and on entering your apartment he respectfully re- 
moves his slippers, but not his turban. During our stay, a 
little, English-speaking Kling, with handsome features, charcoal 
in shade, is selected to serve on our staff, and entrusted with 



2 6 TWO MONTHS' TRAVEL 

my keys. He rejoices in the name of Smythe. A bath (a 
most convenient one being attached to each room), fresh linen 
and clothing drawn from lower depths of our trunks than 
steamer travelling permits, prepared the outer man for the 
refreshment of the inner, at a nine o'clock breakfast. 

I do not think that the general table-d'hote of Singapore 
can compare with a similar repast in Europe or America. 
The fruits, such as oranges, bananas, and pineapples, are 
good, but in the one article of curry, the Straits (so called) 
are super-excellent, and unapproachable. You seat yourself 
beneath the waving punka, and your servant, after tempting 
your appetite with other viands, brings you a great bowl of 
rice, white as snow, and each grain unagglutinated with the 
mass, from which you will do well to heap your plate ; then 
to you he bears the curry of mutton, chicken, cucumber, or 
shrimp, with a warm, yellow gravy, with which you crown your 
hillock of rice until it runs down the side like Vesuvian 
lava ; then comes a hexagonal tray, with saucers neatly fitting 
into its angles, containing "chutneys," — some salt, some fresh, 
some hot, some aromatic, sweet, sour, and compounded of I 
know not what torrid fruits and spices. From these the 
veteran in the tropics daintily selects his condiments, and 
makes a mixture, "slab and good," to suit his particular taste. 
But the tyro and inexperienced "globe-trotter," controlled by 
no kindly directing expert, must experiment for himself, by 
placing dabs of each around his plate, and by cautiously trying 
each. He should take care, however, lest some combination 
of unknown and innocent-looking exterior should unexpectedly 
scorch his mouth with a fire unquenchable by water. It is said 
that the composition should be so deftly prepared that each 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. 



27 



mouthful should have a separate and distinct flavor. To that 
skill I have not yet attained. 

After breakfast, mails, and letters of credit and introduc- 
tion, come in order, to a new arrival. A " gharry," a pony, and 
a howling Malay driver soon made the circuit for us of the 
bankers, ship-agents, and correspondents we desired to see. 

Here at Singapore, even more than elsewhere, may be 
marked the decline of American commerce and enterprise. 
Here in one of the commercial centres of the world — the 
entrepot for the fruits, gums, and spices of the Archipelago 
and the Straits, all largely consumed in the United States, — 
the radiating point from which all the war and commercial 
navies of the world take a new departure between the India 
and China seas — we have only found hvo Americans, and 
those doing business in the name of an English house, while 
no vessel flying the stars and stripes could be observed among 
the fleet of shipping in the harbor. Even our Consul was 
born a Swiss. I am glad to see, however, that our represent- 
atives here are good Americans, and I do not believe that, 
like a recreant I heard of in Hong-Kong, they would be 
willing to give ten years of life to have been born in Eng- 
land. A letter to one of these Americans, Mr. Cyrus Wake- 
field, brought us a hearty welcome and immediate offers of 
service and hospitality. After the shaking up of sea-voy- 
aging, however, both body and mind require settling, so we 
deferred acceptance to an early day. After eleven o'clock in 
the morning, we found pajamas and other airy suits con- 
formable to the climate, but we sent for a carriage-and-pair 
after four o'clock, in order to take advantage of the cooler 
evening to see the environs of Singapore. I think our turn- 



28 • ^^O MONTHS' TRAVEL 

out would have made a sensation in Central Park, — a toler- 
able barouche, into which were harnessed steeds which barely 
escaped being skeletons, a coachman and two footmen in 
livery consisting of hats and coats gorgeous to behold, a 
cotton cloth about the loins, and below this nothing- but 
the integument supplied by nature. We trusted the coach- 
man to select his own route, but, after seeing nothing in par- 
ticular, and finding that after the first half-hour we were 
making a series of detours, all of which seemed to point 

toward a return to the hotel, J took the direction in hand 

himself, and, seeing behind the town a high hill crowned by 
earthworks and a citadel, made sail, with some protestations 
by the driver, to make the ascent. After much tugging, halt- 
ing, and balking by our team, we finally entered the gateway 
of the fort. We found it filled with comfortable quarters for 
officers and soldiers of the garrison, and ramparts commanding 
a most extensive view of the city and harbor. A high signal 
staff for shipping is on the ter7'e-plein, and we found a corporal 
who civilly explained to us the various signals, and told us that 
in very clear weather he had distinguished and signalled vessels 
forty miles at sea. After enjoying the view and sunset, we 
returned to dinner, which, with a post-prandial cigar, finished 
the day. 

Singapore, December 17, 1872. 
As there was every prospect of a long stay here while 
waiting for the steamer for Calcutta, and I had no desire too 
soon to exhaust the sights and enjoyments of Singapore, I was 
not sorry to find on awaking that I should probably be kept in 
my room by a rainy day. Besides, I had letters to write, and 
the sultry, heavy atmosphere gave a pretext for hanging around 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. 



all day in pajamas, that perfect Chinese costume for undress 
lounging in hot countries. About four o'clock, however, the 
rain held up sufficiently to permit Mr. Wakefield to come for us, 
as he had promised, first to drive, and then to take dinner at his 
house. We visited the Botanical Gardens, which, though not 
at their best, were still entertaining, even to one who is not 
botanist enough to call plants by hard names. Palms, orchids, 
and tropical ferns and plants here require no Paxtonian house 
of glass to give them warmth and life. We had been much 
struck in Java and elsewhere by the beauty of the fan or 
Traveller's Palm, which rises like a giant green peacock's tail 
everywhere, through tropical foliage. Wakefield illustrated its 
claim to being the traveller's friend by separating with his 
penknife some of the stems, as they lay close together, near 
their junction with the trunk. About a pint of clear, fresh 
water gushed out of each. A whole plant would readily water 
both steed and rider. We drove to our friend's place, which 
formerly belonged to a Prussian Consul, who had achieved his 
fortune, and had returned to end his days under the paternal 
rule of Kaiser William. The grounds were neady kept, the 
house perfect in its arrangements for hot weather, and the 
view splendid. We found Madame a most amiable and sat- 
isfactory representative American lady. At dinner we met 
the other Singapore American, — Mr. Fay, of Boston. It is 
very nodceable at the East how completely Boston seems to 
have absorbed our enterprise in this direction. Almost all the 
partners of the great American houses, and nearly all indi- 
viduals sent out from the United States, seem to be from 
" the Hub ;" but, for some unaccountable reason, the partners 
and employes of even the great American houses in the East 

5 



30 TIVO MONTHS' TRAVEL 

are becoming more than half English. I sometimes think that 
perhaps the rather English style of Boston men, though they 
are undoubtedly great travellers, is kept up by British contact 
in the colonies, rather than by more direct impress of the 
mother-country. 

Singapore, December 18, 1872. 

Early this morning I heard a familiar " dot and carry one," 
and looking out discovered our quondam travelling companion, 
Professor Waterhouse, of St. Louis, beaming through his spec- 
tacles, as he stumped along the porch. He was soon followed 
by the young men Haggin and Crow, whom he has in charge, 
all having arrived by the Hong-Kong steamer. Waterhouse 
and Crow had left us at Shanghai for Pekin, Haggin awaiting 
them at the latter place, and now they had again caught up 
with us. While the professor displayed that enthusiasm which 
a man always does when he knows he is describing a place 
you haven't seen, Crow evidently thought that the Great Wall, 
and the labor involved in reaching it, did not pay. I quite 
agree with the youth in being satisfied with very little of China. 

Finding the representative of my country so convenient, 
i went in to pay my respects to the United States Consul, 
whom I found a plain, honest soldier of our late war, of Swiss 
extraction, named Studer. He is a sturdy, upright fellow, who 
thinks the honor and safety of his government depend on 
his close attention to his duties. He gives some offence to 
the merchants by what they deem his over-conscientiousness, 
and to the ladies by his lack of prejudice in the matter of 
conveying food to his mouth by knife and fork. He is in- 
tensely American, as our naturalized citizens are apt to be. 
Our tiffin we took with Fay at a merchants' club. 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. ,1 

The Chinese had one of their chronic rows to-night. They 
generally arise between rival clans or societies ; firearms are 
frequently used, and men are sometimes killed. The Celes- 
tials are, however, a very important class among the mixed 
races which make up this settlement. They fill up most of 
the trades, are the farmers on the plantations, the merchants, 
middlemen, and " compradores" of the city. The wealthy have 
beautiful places in the environs. They live, die, and are buried 
in Singapore, not feeling it necessary for their souls' repose, as 
in California, that their bodies should be sent back to China 
for interment. That they keep up their home habits is at- 
tested by the fact that twelve hundred dollars per day is 
paid to government for the monopoly of the retail opium 
trade in Singapore alone. "John" prospers, and he deserves 
it. He is the most business-like of business men. Durinsf 
working hours he assumes nothing in costume above a Coolie, 
except neatness. He attends in person to all details of 
purchases and sales. If his trade be with other ports or 
islands, he goes himself for the produce, inspects it, and sees 
it shipped, takes second-class passage, be he never so rich, 
and keeps his property in sight until it is in his "godown" 
or transferred to other hands. He does his business (as we 
say in California) " under his hat." He requires no army of 
clerks and book-keepers, and no luxurious ofiices. Though 
hard at a bargain, he has much respect for his business honor. 
The guilds help their members when in straits, and Europeans 
have little hesitation in accepting their word in the larger trans- 
actions without other security. Such is their business tact and 
talent, that their home connections and facilities alone enable 
foreign merchants to hold their own. 



'32 '^^O MONTHS' TRAVEL 

Singapore, December 19, 1872. 

We took this morning, with Wakefield and Fay, a walk 
around the "godowns," to see the various tropical products 
of which this is the market. A hundred bushels or more 
of cubebs and black and white capsicum (pepper) were 
drying in the lofts. We saw baskets of crude india-rubber, 
bales of gambler, and bundles of rattan, and no end of tapioca, 
sago, coffee, cutch, mace, nutmeg, gutta-percha, and gum copal. 
We saw some of the processes of baling and boxing these 
articles for shipment. We were shown women sorting nut- 
megs into catty packages, which must be of either eighty or 
a hundred nutmegs in each. They told me that they acquire 
such skill at this work that after selecting a catty (one and a 
third pounds) they almost always get the exact weight, as well 
as the proper number. The hundred-per-catty packages invari- 
ably go to the United States. One of the men opened a betel- 
nut for us, which is enclosed in a hard shell, and resembles a 
nutmeg in form ; we found it, however, very insipid to the taste, 
though, prepared with lime and gambler and the green leaf in 
which the whole is wrapped, it may acquire an artificial flavor. 

Seeing some English cotton cloths in store, our attention 
was called to the superior manner in which British manufac- 
turers prepare their goods for export. They were covered 
with layer upon layer of ordinary paper and cloth, and also 
with tarred paper and gunny bagging, the whole hydraulic- 
pressed and secured with elaborate iron straps. Our people 
think they have done their duty to their customers when they 
supply a little bagging and rope. This care and solidity is 
peculiarly English, and until we adopt it we can't hope to 
compete with them in the markets of the world. 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. ^3 

We tiffined with a bright and handsome little Prussian 
named Brussel. 

In our evening drive we remarked two styles of Malay 
villages, — one with pointed thatched roofs embowered in 
tropical trees bordering on thick jungle ; the other stilted 
upon poles in the midst of the mud flats, reached by slender 
bamboo bridges, and looking very slimy and squalid at low 
tide. 

After the dull sameness in dress of China and Japan, 
nothing can be more striking than the variety of color one 
sees at Singapore. To India, the Archipelago, the Straits 
Settlement, and to China, this city bears the same relation 
that Alexandria does to the Levant. Here all tribes and 
races meet. Each race and subdivision thereof has its own 
turban or head-gear ; each its own covering for the body and 
shoulders, and its peculiar style of wear. All agree in paucity 
of nether garments. From India comes most of the brilliant 
color in turban and toga, and a crowd looks, when collected 
from afar, like a tangled rainbow. It is our first sight of the 
East of the Old Testament and the Arabian Nights. Every- , 
where you see pictures which might have been taken there- 
from. You see white-bearded Abraham, with Isaac bending 
beneath a fagot, which may be used for his sacrifiice or for 
cooking his evening rice. Cast-out Hagar leads her Ishmael. 
At the well Jacob stands in earnest converse with closely- 
swathed Rachel, bearing on her head her lofty water-jar. 
Lazarus begs at the rich man's gate, while Esau, squatted on 
the ground, discusses his mess of pottage. You see Haroun- 
al-Raschid and his Vizier sallying forth disguised for an even- 
ing's adventure. The prevailing ophthalmia gives you the 



34 



TIVO MONTHS' TRAVEL 



three one-eyed calenders in close succession, and Aladdin is 
chaffering at a stall for a newer, if not more wonderful, lamp, 
which will burn kerosene. 

Singapore, December 20, 1872. 

J to-day gave a tiffin-party to gentlemen who had been 

civil to us. The table was spread in one of the protecting 
verandas of the hotel. The food and wine were good, and 
we had a very cheerful time, as Wakefield is a very clever 
raconteur, and Brussel translated some very good stories from 
the German. 

In the evening we went by invitation, with Wakefield, to 
see the celebrated gardens of Whampoa. He is a Chinaman 
of not high extraction, who takes his name from the town of 
his birth. He has achieved position and a fortune by his mer- 
cantile enterprise and industry. During the English war with 
China he did some special service to the fleet in the way of 
furnishing supplies of which he held the monopoly, and for 
this the English government takes from him all articles of 
that class which it needs for either ships or troops. Though 
just now under a pecuniary cloud from the failure of some 
English house with which he was connected, he still retains his 
estates, and it is hoped will soon be clear of indebtedness. 
He is very liberal in his views, and has attempted, by example 
and precept, to break down some of the superstitions of his 
countrymen, particularly that which prevents them from saving 
drowning men (Fung Shung). Still, he is warmly Chinese, and 
I was told that when he learned that a son whom he had edu- 
cated in England was coming home with the dress and habits 
of an Englishman, he telegraphed him to stay at Penang until 
his queue had grown, and till he could come home as a China- 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. 35 

man. I think he was wrong, as I consider their constant ad- 
hesion to their country dress prevents their ready absorption 
in a country Hlce ours, and marks them too distinctly as a class 
by themselves. If they would only conform to European 
dress, their cheap labor would be of great service in the 
United States, and their immigration in large numbers a great 
relief to over-crowded China. Driving into the grounds, we 
were received at the house by a middle-aged Chinaman, with 
his bare feet in slippers, and a worn but clean pajama suit. 
It was Whampoa himself He greeted us in the most unex- 
ceptionable English, and led the way to show us his gardens. 
In the first part were many rare and beautiful plants and 
trees. He showed us long beds of pineapples, and tanks 
filled with the lotus and Victoria Regia, the latter with a 
blossom like a water-lily, at least eight inches in diameter, 
and with leaves as large as an ordinary centre-table, upon 
which water-nymphs might serve tea. He appeared to take 
special pride in one plant which was found by some botanist 
first in his garden, and which he described and named after 
Whampoa himself He took us next to his collection of 
trained plants, where, with whimsical Chinese taste, they were 
distorted and twisted into the form of pagodas, boats, vases, 
cottages, men, women, birds, beasts, and fish ; in fact, into all 
shapes except those which kind Dame Nature intended them 
to take. When it grew dark we were ushered into the house, 
— first into a large dining-room adorned with pictures, vases, 
etc. Here he had entertained Commodore Perry, Admirals 
Rowan and Rogers, of our navy, and princes of England 
and Russia. He has pictures of several royal personages, 
and I promised to send him a photograph of President Grant 



36 ^^O MONTHS' TRAVEL 

on my return. Taking us up-stairs through a door on which 
was painted an EngHsh soldier which he called "his guard," 
he showed us a handsome drawing-room and library fur- 
nished in European style, and exhibited, with marked satis- 
faction, a cane cut from Mount Vernon, which had been 
presented to him by some American navy officer. After a 
cup of tea, we took our leave. As we departed, he noticed 
my limp, and begged my acceptance of a fine " Penang 
lawyer," — a large-headed stick, so called. 

Singapore, December 21, 1S72. 
Under the guidance of Major Studer, we drove out about 
six miles this morning, to visit a tapioca plantation. On the 
road we passed much of it in culture. The plant is from 
four to six feet high, with five-pointed leaves, resembling a 
little the castor-oil bean. It is from the starch contained in 
the root that the tapioca of commerce is obtained. Arriving 
at the holise, we had to arouse Mr. Casseroy from his siesta, 
which, by country custom, is taken after the eleven o'clock 
breakfast. He is a middle-aged Frenchman, who had had 
experience in this culture in South America, and in Penang 
he accumulated a fortune which he thought would keep him 
as a rentier in La belle France for the remainder of his days ; 
but the failure of some bank, the depreciation of property, 
and (I think) the war, brought him back to the Straits to 
commence the world anew. He took us to his works, which 
are conducted under long, low buildings, near a fine spring, of 
water. The roots, which resemble yams or sweet potatoes, 
are first scraped, with specially adapted knives, by one gang 
of hands ; they are then passed through a hopper into a mill 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. 



Z7 



worked by a portable steam-engine, which reduces them to 
pulp. This is taken out in baskets and submitted to the 
action of a stream of clear water, kept up by swapes, from 
the spring. This washes out and takes up the starch, and 
runs into a large vat, from which it is drawn off into smaller 
ones, in the bottom of which is deposited the product in the 
form of paste. This is taken to the drying-room, where it is 
worked over on hot plates similar to those used for "firing" 
tea. Afterwards a second heatinof and working over makes it 
a beautiful pearly white flour. To get it into the globular form 
in which we generally use it requires only a slight variation of 
this process. The whole manufacture is very neatly conducted, 
and, if I liked tapioca, and knew that it came from the planta- 
tion of our host, I should indulge in it without a scruple. 

Mr. Casseroy is building a strong close fence around the 
whole of his estate, to keep out the deer and wild boar, which 
do great damage' to his crop. The sides of our whole road 
were carpeted by the sensitive plant ; and it was curious to 
see a whole mass of verdure, when touched by a stick, or 
even when our carriage rumbled by, converted instantly into 
apparently dry and leafless weeds. 

Singapore, December 22, 1872. 
My birthday, in which I take no particular satisfaction. 
These mile-stones on life's journey come too fast as we get 
into middle age. Pity one cannot be always young ! We 
were invited by Studer to inspect a lot of shells, native arms, 
bird-of-paradise feathers, etc., which he had collected. As he 
opened one of the packages, a fine scorpion was disclosed. 
Studer gave each of us a Malay "creese" as a keepsake. 

6 



38 



TWO MONTHS' TRAVEL 



On a charming afternoon drive to a place called Selita we 
were accompanied by a handsome, intelligent little naturalist 
from Hamburg, named Meyer. He has already made ex- 
tended explorations in Celebes, and is now preparing for an 
expedition to collect the fauna of New Guinea. At the police 
station at Selita, his eyes sparkled when he saw in cages two 
specimens of a rare species of small parrot. He immediately 
purchased the unhappy pets, and in his cruel enthusiasm had 
them skinned and ready for shipping before bedtime. Before 
returning, we refreshed ourselves with the milk of some young 
cocoanuts. Why this fluid is called 7mlk I do not know, as 
to me it is like water slightly acid and flavored with cocoanut. 
As we drove back, the sunset shadows began to lengthen. 
Our road leads by a clear stream, and, this being favorable 
for their ablutions, we see at each bend pious Moslems clothed 
in white, with upper garments spread upon the ground, and 
faces turned toward Mecca and the setting sun, making 
their evening prayer. Apparently lost to all about them, 
they were alternately standing in meditation, kneeling with 
clasped hands and upturned eyes, or prostrating themselves 
with foreheads to the ground. A religion where the open air 
is a sanctuary, cleanliness before worship the only requisite, 
and the believer prays to God alone without intercession of 
priest or saint, has certainly the advantage of simplicity. 

Singapore, December 23, 1872. 
Our Calcutta steamer is in, so a little shopping is neces- 
sary to make preparation for a seven days' voyage. If you 
want any European articles, you have only to go to one shop 
for them. This is like an American country store, indefinitely 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. 



multiplied: saddlery, millinery, and stationery, dress-making, 
tailoring, jewelry, pianos, medicine, linen-drapery, books, boots, 
hats, confectionery, groceries, and fancy goods, — everything, in 
fine, from a set of harness to a tooth-pick, — can all be purchased 
under the same roof, or furnished from the warehouse ad- 
jacent. Such are the gigantic establishments of Sayle & Co. 
and Lane, Crawford & Co. in all the principal ports of China 
and Japan, and John Little & Co. in Singapore. We dine 
aeain with our kind friends the Wakefields, beg their photo- 
graphs, promise to send ours from Calcutta, and bid farewell. 

Singapore, December 24, 1872. 
As the passenger list of the Apgar steamer is already 
full, it being the faster of the two, we were obliged to content 
ourselves with the Statesman, of the Jardine line. These 
lines run a kind of mild opposition to each other, leaving 
Hong-Kong on the same day of each month, and arriving 
in Calcutta in time for the great government auction sale of 
opium. They then get their load of poison and return to 
China. Before the establishment of the telegraph, this trade 
was very exciting. The fastest possible steamers were on 
the respective lines. The captains of each would contrive 
to communicate at the earliest moment to their principals 
such information as would enable them to make a corner or 
bull or bear the market before others could be in possession 
of the news. Immense sums were made in this way. Light- 
ning has, however, spoilt their fun. As soon as it was bruited 
about that we were off, we became objects of great attention 
to the innumerable servants and hangers-on of the hotel. 
They began to collect around our doors. Servants who by 



AQ TWO MONTHS' TRAVEL 

chance at table had helped us to curry or a fork, servants who 
had met us on the piazzas, those who had frequently seen 
us at a distance, and those who, no doubt, had heard of us, 
all assembled, making profound salaams, and awaiting back- 
sheesh. As our luggage goes into the bullock-cart, they 
snatch at the straps and handles to strengthen their claim 
to douceurs. They have become so attached to us during 
our stay that they can only be consoled by receiving por- 
traits of her Majesty impressed upon the coins of the realm. 
Hastily distributing some of these, and leaving them gazing 
at them either loyally or inquiringly, we jump into our gharry 
and are off for the ship. After a three-mile drive, not count- 
ing a detour made by our stupid gharry walla to the wrong 
ship, we at last arrive at the Statesman, and deposit our lug- 
gage. Though a large freight-carrier and reasonably fast, the 
ship is not specially adapted to passengers or hot weather, 
as her half-dozen of cabins have but small port-holes, which 
open out on a closed gangway. They had done their best, 
however, to make us comfortable, and civility goes far. Our 
Kling boy, Smythe, bids us farewell, — our ship swings from 
the wharf at about a quarter after four. We glide past the 
monument marking the mouth of the . harbor opposite to 
that from which we entered. Our pilot goes over the side, 
and we are off for India. The first dinner disclosed the fact 
that there were but two sharers of the captain's board besides 
ourselves; both were Frenchmen, with one of whom, a "globe- 
trotter" like ourselves, named Bienville, we had come up from 
Java. A fifth passenger, a Parsee, whose religion did not 
permit his eating with us, occupied another state-room. Our 
captain, a bluff, hearty young sailor, who has sailed to New 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. ^i 

York, and likes us none the less for being from that vicinity, 
has tender reminiscences of American oysters, terrapin, and 
canvas-back ducks, and (though now a married man) of a 
certain girl from Maine who wore spectacles, and who had 
"a pot of money." I trust the latter did not constitute her 
only charm in the eyes of our sailor. Like most Englishmen 
not of gentle blood, our skipper dropped and misplaced his h's 
with great precision ; but one soon gets used to that, and it 
would not be difficult, by contact, to acquire the habit. The 
night being hot, I ordered my mattress and pillows on deck, 
where I slept, as I continued to do on the whole passage, 
never once occupying my cabin. 

At Sea, Christmas, 1872. 
We turned out to rather a rainy, thick morning. The 
Apgar steamer, having the start as well as the advantage of 
us in speed, was so far ahead that we could barely discern 
her smoke between the showers. About noon, however, it 
cleared up, and we discovered that our rival and companion 
had slowed down and was evidently waiting for us. Through 
our glasses we saw that she was decked with flags in honor 
of the day. Not to be outdone, the captain of the Statesman 
set his house and national colors, and in compliment to us 
sent up the stars and stripes. We got out Marryatt's Code, 
and finding- two sets of signals which read " Christmas com- 
pliments" ( d^g'^h" ')) they were also hoisted. As we neared the 
Hindostan, she answered our signals and fired a salute, while 
some missionaries on board waved the small banner of our 
country, which we Americans usually carry with us in lieu of 
a pocket-handkerchief. As the firing was somewhat unex- 



42 



TWO MONTHS' TRAVEL 



pected, and our carronades had fallen into disuse, we could 
not reply immediately ; but I offered to superintend the artil- 
lery, and by means of a kitchen skewer, which I found, made 
an excellent priming wire ; we cleared the vents, and were 
soon ourselves blazing away. As neither ship could go into 
Penang before morning, and it was of no use to hurry, we 
continued in company, exchanged cheers, and drank cham- 
pagne to each other's health. Our steward gave us as a 
rare Christmas treat " mangosteens" for dessert. After some 
discussion as to whether they should be cut lengthwise or 
across, we agreed that either way they were a delicious fruit. 
After dark they lit up the other ship with Chinese lanterns, 
and, as we could hear the scraping of a fiddle, we surmised 
that they were getting up a dance with the ladies among 
their passengers. We lone bachelors amused ourselves by 
firing our guns, rockets, and blue-lights, and making night 
hideous by sounding a fog-horn. About eleven o'clock, when 
everybody had pretty well burned their fingers with the fire- 
works, we let off a " feu-de-joie" of everything we had left, 
and relapsed into silence and darkness, after spending an 
odd, and not unmerry, Christmas. 

At Sea, December 26, 1872. 
At daylight this morning we found our Kling pilot on 
board, and the ship steadily steaming into Penang. When 
we came to anchor, we found that the Hindostan had slipped 
into port before us and was already at her moorings. The 
view of Penang from the harbor is very picturesque. The 
town itself, presenting little to see in an architectural way, is 
surrounded by palms, and behind it is a fine mountain-range, 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. ^a 

which rises nearly three thousand feet and forms the back- 
bone of the island. On one of the sides could be seen the 
celebrated falls, glistening like a silver ribbon. The captain 
took us ashore in his gig to the landing-ghat, where we 
employed a stout pony with an avaricious little Malay driver, 
who haggled for an additional dollar for every mile to go 
about the town. The city was like the worst parts of Singa- 
pore, but we finally discovered a road lined with nice bunga- 
lows, all fronting on the bay. At the end of the drive was 
a photographer, which fact we did not discover till we re- 
turned to town. So we had to drive all the way out again 
to get the pictures we wanted. On our return to the ship, 
we were visited by the captain of the Hindostan and a 
Mr. Ward, son of a former governor of New Jersey, both 
looking as though they had spent a merry Christmas. The 
two skippers had fixed on half-past four as the moment of 
starting, and at that time our competitor came dashing down 
by us, to the apparently imminent peril of our boats and bul- 
warks, while we were still discharging freight. It looked as 
though she would get the start of us. Our captain, however, 
turned his ship at her anchor, hoisted the mud-hook with his 
donkey-engine, and finally passed our rival before she could 
turn. Her speed, however, soon made up her distance. The 
monsoon was in our favor, and we both set sail, and bowled 
away for Calcutta across the Bay of Bengal. 

Bay of Bengal, December 27, 28, and 29. 
Life at sea, with no land in sight, is pretty much the same 
in all waters, — a passing steamer, a sail, a change of wind, or 
a school of porpoises, are each an event. Warm breezes. 



44 



TWO MONTHS' TRAVEL 



flights of flying-fish, and an occasional turtle sunning himself 
on the surface of the water, indicate that we are sailing a 
tropical sea. It is the correct thing for the traveller to see 
snakes ; not D. T. ones, but such as have the habit of crawl- 
ing into cabins by means of the ropes which careless captains 
so frequently permit to trail overboard. 

Wherever I go I am sure to miss the regular sights. I 
saw no one commit hari-kari in Japan ; no rats for sale in 
the market of Foochow ; no last duck whipped in the boat 
city of Canton ; no upas-tree in Java ; no Malay running 
"amok" in Singapore. How interesting the journal of a man 
of imagination might be made ! Time passes in eating, 
smoking, reading, and sleeping. I re-read some of the novels 

of Eugene Sue and Walter Scott, and I saw at times J 's 

eyes looking red over the sorrows of Amy Robsart in " Kenil- 
worth." Our Frenchmen struggle manfully with the English 
language. One, who whistles shrilly and incessantly, we have 
dubbed the " siffleur." My nerves are sure of repose only 
when he is smoking or eating. Our Parsee is civil and un- 
obtrusive. The captain has a dog which is a general pet 
and nuisance. He visits all the messes, from the forecastle 
to the cabin, and begs pathetically for rations. He is morbid 
in his desire for play, and keeps up a deafening bark when 
one is reading or sleeping, and sprinkles your book or white 
trousers with water on emerging from the buckets, where he 
dives for whatever is thrown in for his delectation. 

December 31, 1872. At Sea. 
We have been making- averagfe runs of two hundred and 
forty miles per day, and are nearing the coast of India. We 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. ^r 

see frequent sails of ships in the Calcutta trade, in contrast 
with the almost deserted waters we have traversed. At 
half-past two p.m. we make the light-ship at the mouth of the 
Hoogly, and in an hour our pilot is on board. We run in 
until we are opposite the light-house on Janger Island (Tiger 
Island), when we drop anchor for the night. 

January i, 1873. New Year's Day. 
Everybody turns out at daylight and exchanges the com- 
pliments of the season. Even the Parsee rushes from his 
cabin and seizes my hand with a cordial shake. The anchor 
is hove, and the ship, in charge of the pilot, commences the 
somewhat difficult navigation of the Hoogly. The Calcutta 
pilots are noted swells ; their pay is large, and they are in- 
clined to put on (what C. Longfellow calls) " side," and to 
spend much money in adorning their persons. The legend 
runs that there are among them noblemen under assumed 
names. They each have an embryo sucking pilot as an as- 
sistant, called a leadsman. Promotion is regular, and it takes 
many years to reach the higher grades. Our pilot, one of 
the oldest on the river, seems to try to keep up the reputa- 
tion of his fraternity by donning a fresh shirt and suit for 
the day. His pants, however, have a Greeley-like tendency 
to catch on the top of his gaiters, and, with his sun-helmet 
and general salt-water look, he would scarcely be mistaken 
for a Bond Street dandy. We have nowhere seen signs of 
commercial activity such as are presented by the Hoogly 
River. We pass in almost constant succession steamers and 
tugs towing vessels out to sea. On the banks we can see 
natives farming and cattle grazing, villages, and sometimes 

7 



46 



riVO MONTHS' TRAVEL 



pretentious buildings. These plains of the Delta were once 
the wealthiest and most densely populated parts of India. 
We had our first experience of the sight of bodies burning 
along the banks. 

The "siffleur" alleges that he saw an alligator, but brought 
forward no proof of the allegation. Our eyes and opera- 
glasses are In constant search for novelties. At the monu- 
ment marking the harbor-limits the pilot turns the ship about, 
expecting to transfer her to another official, to be backed up 
to her berth nearer town. After much whistling and waiting, 
we conclude that the festivities of the day will continue to 
detain the harbor-master, and so we make arrangements for 
our personal conveyance to Calcutta by small boat. We pass 
the King of Oude's palace, on the top of which two men, with 
flags on long poles, are manoeuvring four flocks of pigeons, 
which they send by signal circling around the roof. Two tigers 
in kiosk-shaped cages are confined at the front corners of the 
palace grounds. Within are extensive gardens, and collec- 
tions of birds and animals. It is upon these, and a crowd of 
dancing-women and hangers-on, that his Majesty of Oude 
manages to squander his income of $50,000 per month allowed 
him by the English Government, and then complains of poverty 
and asks for more. The shipping In the port was decorated in 
honor of the day, and we discover Admiral Jenkins's flag-ship, 
our old friend the Lackawanna, most gorgeous of any in her 
streamers and colors. As we passed we were recognized 
and hailed by some of our friends on board. We stop at 
the ghat nearest to our destination, and with half a rupee 
satisfy eight men who have rowed us two miles. On this day 
everything with four legs seems engaged, so we walk under 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. 



47 



what feels to us like a burning sun past the Government 
House, with its Sikh sentinels and lion-capped gate-posts, to 
the Great Eastern Hotel. Judging by the immense shops 
and restaurants on the first floor, hotel-keeping seems to be 
the least occupation of the managers. After some delay in 
making known our wants, we select some comfortable suites 
of rooms, send for a carriage, and drive to the fancy fair in 
the grounds of the Lieutenant-Governor's residence, which 
is held yearly for the benefit of the charitable societies of 
Calcutta. We found that even India does not change the 
character of fancy fairs. There was good music by two bands; 
booths where ladies sold at high prices an infinite deal of trash ; 
lotteries, roulette raffles, and grab-bags supplied temptations 
to pious gambling ; and much eating and drinking was done 
for charity's sake. It was a mixed and, in some respects, an 
interesting crowd. Perhaps it was chagrin that they did not 
pounce upon us from their stalls, displaying their graces as 
they solicited our custom, as had happened to us at home, but 
I did not appreciate the European beauty of Calcutta as there 
represented. The costumes, however, of the native princes, 
rajahs, baboos, or half-castes, made up for other deficiencies. 
The males wore cashmere shawls, and were gorgeous in 
gilded caps and slippers, with robes and trousers of glistening 
tissues heavy with embroidery. Their women were loaded 
down with necklaces, bracelets, bangles from wrist to elbow, 
with ear-, nose-, finger-, and toe-rings, armlets, and anklets. 
Whether it was the day or the occasion I do not know, but 
I saw no such display afterwards in India, and the sex were 
invariably shy and externally simple in dress. 

There was one officer of the Lackawanna I am sure to meet 



48 



TWO MONTHS' TRAVEL 



the instant I set foot on shore in the East, — of course Elliot 
was on hand. The fete broke up about sunset, and then the 
task was to find our trap among the two thousand vehicles 
in waiting. The police had stowed them away in all manner 
of out-of-the-way corners, and we kicked our heels for two 
tedious hours before we discovered our forlorn conveyance, 
and by it reached our hotehand our dinner. 

Calcutta, January 2, 1873. 

Early this morning we had a visit from Litchfield, the 
United States Consul-General, and, as he had served in the 
Army of the Potomac, we easily fraternized, and he placed 
himself and his carriage at our disposal. 

I had been ordering all my home letters to Calcutta ever 
since leaving Japan. My Hong-Kong batch was the only 
one I had received since leaving California, and I confess 
to feeling disappointed, and perhaps a little jealous, when I 

saw J with his arms full of letters, while I had but one. 

During the morning we met Admiral Jenkins and several of 
our navy friends, and accepted an invitation from Field and 
Selfridge to drive with them in the evening. Learning that 
the flag-ship was to sail on the following day, we sent on 
board a general and informal invitation to the officers to 
dine with us at the hotel. The glacis and ground swept by the 
guns of Fort William (built by the old East India Company) 
is laid out with fine drives, squares, and gardens. The law 
courts and other public edifices are near, and there is no end 
of monuments and statues to by-gone Indian swells. The 
Rotten Row is on the river, between the fort and Eden Gar- 
dens, and is styled the Strand. The gardens have a band- 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. aq 

Stand, and are illuminated with gas, like the Champs Elysees, 
and the fashionables here solace themselves after dark with 
music. The yellow, hazy sunset of this part of India, with its 
brief twilight, is peculiar, as well as beautiful. We had with 
us at dinner eight of the Lackawannas, also an American 
civilian who journeys in our direction. After much perusal 
of testimonials, we have selected a native Mohammedan, 
named Abdul Lattef, to be our servant, guide, and factotum. 
He isn't pretty, but seems willing and intelligent. 

Calcutta, January 4, 1873. 

One of our compagnons de voyage, a clever, much-travelled 
Englishman, named Todhunter, called and breakfasted with 
us, and acted as cicerone for our morning's drive. We first 
inspected the fort, and afterwards the suburbs, where we saw 
many fine residences, but hardly enough to justify the sobri- 
quet of the " City of Palaces" here assumed. 

The Lackawanna has been compelled, by the breaking out 
of cholera on board, to leave the Hoogly River and put out 
to sea : so I made it a point to go on board to bid every- 
body good-by. I really parted with Admiral Jenkins, Captain 
Shirley, and their respective officers very sadly, — in the first 
place because they are a lot of good fellows, and then because 
we have met them in almost every port we have struck during 
our journey, including San Francisco, and wherever we find 
them we feel as though we were at home. I was amused at 
the boatman who brought me off and took me ashore. On 
the first trip he treated me with much indifference, but when 
he saw the marine guard formed and the "sides piped" as I 
came off the ship, he wanted me to pay double, because he 



so 



TWO MONTHS' TRAVEL 



discovered that I was a " Burra Sahib." The rule in India is 
to make a gentleman pay according to his rank and his sup- 
posed salary. Litchfield came off with me, and we went to 
the bazaar and spent an hour dickering for ivories and other 
Indian " curios." The invariable rule here is for the dealer 
to ask from two to four prices, and the customer must haggle 
with him until he comes within reason. European tradesmen, 
from a desire to accumulate sudden wealth and then eet out 
of the country, have the same habit of charging for every- 
thing four times its value ; but they are far too firm and supe- 
rior to " come down," as Zaccheus did when called upon. We 
drove to see the ghat where the Hindoo dead are burned. 
This was a roofless space on the river, surrounded by a high 
brick wall, outside of which were piles of wood and reeds. 
There was an oven with a tall chimney, which the English can't 
persuade the natives to use. They prefer burning their dead 
on the ground, as was the custom of their fathers. There were 
several greasy spots around the enclosure, where bodies had 
been burned during the day, and a coolie was poking the 
embers over some remains that were frizzling in the coals. 
We returned through the native quarter, and very filthy and 
unpleasant it was. The people were all out taking the even- 
ing air on porches and house-tops, and as we passed groups 
of chattering women, in high tide of gossip, all that had any 
pretensions to youth or good looks hastily veiled their faces 
when they saw us and dove out of sight. The old and ugly 
ones, however, stared as bold as brass. 

We dined with Todhunter at the Bengal Club, which is 
the most swell establishment of the kind in the East. We 
had the first good club dinner which we have had since 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. 51 

leaving America. They are generally kept up by a system of 
farming them to stewards, which makes them very bad. 

On my return I found the card of Colonel Earle, Military 
Secretary to the Viceroy, who, contrary to Indian etiquette, 
had called on us first, probably at the suggestion of some of 
the navy officers who have just left. Young Emory, son of 
the old general, and A. D. C. to Admiral Jenkins, has been 
everywhere almost touchingly zealous in his desire that we 
should share the courtesies offered to the navy, and to have 
us " respected like the lave" by the officials. 

January 5, 1873. Calcutta. 

J and Todhunter took an early walk this morning 

down to the burning ghat, where they saw the dead in all 
stages of incremation, and pariah dogs rugging at the re- 
mains of extinguished funeral-piles. I did not go, as I do 
not like early rising and exercise, and never could bear the 
smell of roast meat before breakfast. Jesting aside, though, 
I do not seriously object to the disposition of the dead by fire. 
The living are shocked by no grinning skull or other ghastly 
remnant of mortality. In over-crowded populations the dead 
may pollute the springs, or, as in China, rob labor of the soil 
which should support its share of life. The ancients made 
death even ornamental. They would decorate their dwellings 
with their in-urned ancestors, or wear a compressed relative 
in a thumb-ring. By the alchemy of fire we are simply re- 
solved into our original constituents, and after the elimination 
of the incorporeal parts, our ashes returned to the earth may 
again become life in those who live after us. 

Our vanity, and the promises we made to friends en route. 



52 



TWO MONTHS' TRAVEL 



kept us posing in front of a photographic camera nearly all 
the morning. At about noon we returned Colonel Earle's 
call. He lives at the Government House, and his wife does 
the social honors of the palace for the present Viceroy, Lord 
Northbrook. I was pleased to find Colonel Earle an officer 
of the Grenadier Guards, whom I remembered to have met 
in the Army of the Potomac, and that we had several mutual 
friends. He civilly expressed regret at our short stay, as the 
Governor-General took him out of town for Sunday, which 
would deprive him of the only opportunity of offering us the 
hospitalities of Government House. All the officials have 
been very civil to the American navy officers. In fact, the 
Lackawanna is the first American flag-ship whose light draft 
has permitted her to ascend the river to the city. Her of- 
ficers were full of all kinds of pleasant engagements, and 
were much disgusted at being driven back to sea by the 
cholera. We don't intend to do much society in India, as if 
we do we must give up sight-seeing, and it requires a life- 
time to master the cranky laws of Indian etiquette, — it must 
be an intense bore when accomplished. A call on Mrs. 
McAllister brought us an invitation to dinner this evening, 
which we accepted. A steeple-chase at Baligunge formed 
the afternoon's festivity. The ground was not difficult, nor 
was any one hurt, which constitutes the principal interest of 
this kind of racing. On the mound for spectators I saw 
Colonel Percy Wyndham, one of our imported cavalry 
" frauds" in the Army of the Potomac. He now edits a 
comic journal in Calcutta. Oddly enough, in looking around 
the enclosure I found five gentlemen, including myself, who 
had served in the army in front of Richmond. 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. c, 

Calcutta, Sunday, January 5, 1873. 

A CARRIAGE to Garden Reach, and a boat across the river, 
took us to the Botanical Gardens. It was yellow from lack 
of rain, and, whatever it might be to a botanist, was not par- 
ticularly interesting to us. The feature of the garden is the 
great banyan-tree, which is nearly a hundred paces in di- 
ameter, and without actual count I should say has a hundred 
and fifty downward trunks. 

We knew very well that no one could get into the grounds 
of the King of Oude's palace, but as we returned by the 
place, Abdul in his zeal had us in front of the residence of the 
Royal Chamberlain, and our cards sent up to that functionary, 
almost before we knew where we were. Of course the per- 
mission to enter applied for was refused, — very civilly, how- 
ever: "extensive repairs were in progress; the fish had been 
removed from the tanks, and the animals from their cages ; 
the king's ladies were occupying one of the buildings," etc., etc. 

Passing out, we looked into an apartment of which the 
floor was covered with gorgeously-arrayed children, showing 
that our inflexible friend was a " numerous father." 

On our return, we found that Colonel Earle had sent us 
quite a package of letters to officials in the upper country. 
We drove in the afternoon to Kalighat, to view the temple 
of Kali, the patron goddess of murder and the Thugs. Her 
pictures represent her with a protruding tongue, a necklace 
of skulls, and several arms holding a decapitated head and 
warlike weapons ; around her shrine lay goats which had been 
sacrificed, and it is not many years since it has been the custom 
to offer her human victims. It was here we saw our first 
"fakir" or "gooroo," a gaunt fellow seated in a little shrine, 



54 



TWO MONTHS' TRAVEL 



with his arms resting on the knees of his crossed legs, im- 
movable as stone, his eyes gazing into space, evidently lost 
in pious contemplation of the Infinite. We visited in the 
vicinity several Hindoo temples, some in good order and 
others mere kennels for jackals. In all of them we were 
expected to gaze from a long distance upon the central di- 
vine presentment, not being permitted to pollute the shrine 
by our nearer presence. 

Calcutta, January 6, 1873, Monday. 
We had intended to start to-day, but have deferred our 
departure until to-morrow. One of our objects in staying 
here was to see the Indian Museum ; but it did not prove 
extraordinary : principally a collection of very sick and mangy 
looking stuffed animals and birds. We took an afternoon 
drive with Litchfield to the Seven Tanks. On our way down, 
a reckless Baboo in a Pfisf ran into us so hard as to break our 
carriage-lamp. He then scuttled off at a rapid rate, fearing 
chastisement, which any European resident would certainly 
have given him could he have been caught. The object of 
our visit belongs to a rich native, and, as its name implies, 
has seven tanks within an enclosure around a central build- 
ing. The latter is a show-place, and is furnished in a very 
unpleasing combination of European and Indian style. The 
proprietor has been grossly swindled with a collection of gaudy 
daubs and bad copies of statuary, though his art possessions 
must have cost him a great deal of money. There is a col- 
lection of birds and animals in one corner of the grounds, 
and a boy illustrated the tameness of the fish, which are quite 
large, by letting them feed from his hand. 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. cc 



Calcutta, January 7, 1873. 

I WAS made happy by getting a home letter to-day. It 
came by way of Cahfornia ; and if all my mail from the United 
States has taken the same route, I may as well make up my 
mind to get home news by personal inquiry. I made some 
P. P. C. calls on Colonel Earle, Mrs. McAllister, and Captain 
De Robec of the Viceroy's staff, and spent most of the hottest 
days we have encountered in Calcutta in writing, packing, and 
preparation for the journey. There are no Pullman cars on 
Indian railways, and to be comfortable one must carry bedding, 
pillows, towels, etc. Crossing the river by moonlight in a 
small boat, in order to reach the train, we found that at least 
five of the first-class passengers were Americans, and as we 
stood in a group, a little cockney guard, recognizing our na- 
tionality, came up to us and said that he had served in our 
war with the Duryea Fire Zouaves. We bade farewell to 
Litchfield, who came to see us off, and our train started about 
half-past eight. 

N. W. P. R. R., January 8, 1873. 

We were pleasandy surprised after our previous hot day 
in Calcutta to find it quite cool on the road. The country 
through which it runs is not particularly interesting. In the 
morning we were among the hills, but the landscape became 
flat as we emerged into the valley of the Ganges. There is 
hardly a large town in India on the main lines of railroad. 
To reach Benares we take a branch road from Mogulserai. 
Our luggage was booked for Allahabad, and English routine 
would not permit the car to be unlocked short of that station, 
so we contented ourselves with our hand-lusfeasfe. It was 
after dark when we arrived at the station on the Ganees, 



56 



TWO MONTHS' TRAVEL 



opposite the city. After considerable delay, we found a 
conveyance, and crossed the bridge of boats. During our 
detention the best hotel in Benares (Clark's) filled up, and 
we had to content ourselves with the Victoria, which we 
reached after a long, cold ride by moonlight. 

January 9, 1873. Benares. 
Rather than take our chances of missing our luggage, if 
ordered to be sent back, we concluded to make an early 
start and try to do the sights of the holy city of India in 
one day. To that end we breakfasted betimes ; but the first 
obstacle to our day's industry arose in our horses refusing 
to budge from the hotel. These animals throughout India 
have a morbid and persistent desire for repose. Once in 
harness, their strongest wish is to be let alone. It takes 
much coaxing and diplomacy to start them, and you are 
never sure of proceeding unless you know that they are on 
a gallop and can hear the lash going. Our valet de place is 
a little Hindoo, whose English has been acquired in one of 
the native schools. He has very pat the British interroga- 
tive phrase, " I beg your pardon ?" and makes you repeat all 
your questions in order to give him an opportunity of using 
it. On the road we met our first elephant, backed into the 
gutter, as the law requires, to avoid frightening the horses. 
We declined our guide's offer to borrow one of these beasts 
from the Rajah for our afternoon's riding. Our first visit 
was to the Monkey Temple, whose vicinity was indicated by 
house-tops, walls, and trees, for half a mile, being lined with 
brown apes. In the temple and around the tank adjacent 
they swarmed, giving a startlingly life-like type to the already 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. 



57 



fantastic architecture, by perching everywhere on the pin- 
nacles and roofs. A few handfuls of nuts and orain brought 
them down chattering and mowing around us, until the court 
was filled with the human caricatures. The monkey is wor- 
shipped by the Hindoos for his military services in the cam- 
paign undertaken by the god Ram for the recovery of his 
abducted wife : they made a bridge of their intertwisted tails 
and bodies, by which a whole army crossed into Ceylon. It 
did sound a little queer, though, to hear an intelligent lad 
like our guide say, " This monkey is my god." We drove to 
the Ganges, and, mounting to the roof of a house-boat, pro- 
ceeded thereon up the stream for some distance, to afterwards 
drop down and see the sights in succession. In front of the 
city is a high bluff, admirably adapted for showing the domes, 
minarets, and terraced roofs with which it is crowned. The 
steps and piers along the river, and the stream itself, were 
crowded with devotees, to do justice to the color of whose 
costumes a painter's whole palette would be exhausted. To 
douse themselves into the water, to drink and make oblation 
therewith, to cast upon its surface, with appropriate prayers 
and ceremonies, flowers and fruits, and afterwards to daub on 
their foreheads the mark of their caste, is the solemn business 
of their lives. It was a raw morning, and it must have been 
rather a chilly business, but, lit up by the morning sun, it 
looked bright, and when their worship is over, they chatter, 
laugh, and bargain most cheerfully. In the very midst of 
these festive crowds there are, however, grave suggestions. 
Funeral piles are burning at the water's edge. They are 
just building one of wood and reeds, from the midst of which 
you can see a head and gray locks protruding. A boat 



58 



TWO MONTHS' TRAVEL 



pushes from the shore, propelled by a single sculler like Charon 
in the stern. Under a low roof are seen white-robed mourners, 
whose wail or funeral song faintly reaches our ears. On the 
bow is a defunct native, on his back, with his legs trussed into 
a triangle, and a flat piece of sandstone laid upon his breast. 
We watch them as they move slowly up the stream, scarcely 
past the crowds of worshippers ; we see a movement, a splash, 
and another Hindoo is entombed in the holy waters of the 
Ganges. As we drop down the river, we stop our boat at 
the different places of interest. We climb the steps and 
stairs to the roof on which is the observatory of Jey Singh. 
Here, with a fine prospect, are sundials, meridian planes, 
graduated mural and transit circles, and other appliances of 
primitive astronomy. I judged that they were intended to be 
used in superstitious astrology as a means of reading the fates, 
rather than for the purpose of advancing science. Our suc- 
ceeding visit is to the Nepaulese or Jain temple, its gilded 
domes sustained by pillars and arches of wood covered 
with elaborate and eccentric carvings in wood. Below this, 
swarms of pilgrims surrounded the well Manakarnaka, whose 
waters will wash out sins, however deadly, provided due pay- 
ments are also made to the attending priests. On the banks 
are also huge recumbent figures in whitewashed and painted 
mud, which are adored at certain seasons. We last mounted 
to the mosque of Aurungzebe, whose tall minarets and domes 
were alive with pigeons and chattering paroquets. J as- 
cended for the view to the top of one of the minars, two 
hundred and twenty-seven feet above the river, where the 
prospect must have been very fine. I sat, meantime, on the 
terrace below, and awaited his descent. It will be observed 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. cq 

throughout this journal that when there is any climbing or 
clambering to be done, I am generally " counted out," while 

J , since he accomplished Fusiyama, finds all the other 

ups and downs of the world mere bagatelle. We passed 
through the bazaar, where J , true to his love for any- 
thing like a vase, bought two pairs of embossed brass water- 
pots ; pretty, but difficult of transportation. At our hotel we 
found a crowd of dealers in pictures painted on mica, and 
carvings in wood and ivory ; also some fellows with large 
snakes around their necks, and with scorpions and other 
venomous reptiles in pots. A hooded cobra was exhibited, 
in color like a light calico pattern, who placed himself in coil, 
expanded his hood, and struck spitefully at the hand of his 
owner ; of course his fangs had been extracted. After lunch 
we visited the Golden Temple, of which we were graciously 
permitted to contemplate the roofs from an adjoining building, 
and to peep through a hole at the worshippers. We were 
shown a colossal bull in stone, and also the well into which 
the god Recheswar precipitated himself rather than be defiled 
by contact with the invading Mohammedans ; then we went to 
a shrine which was a kind of stable for a most independent 
and aristocratic lot of cows, and also a rendezvous for a most 
importunate lot of beggars, who, I think, would have devoured 
us, had we not been taken under the protection of some native 
policemen. Somewhat surfeited with holy places and things, 
we next visit one of the Kincob or gold embroidery establish- 
ments, for which the town is famous. We there purchase 
some pretty but very dear articles, and are amused by the 
coolness with which our guide demands and receives his per- 
centage or " custom" on all we buy. 



6o T'fTO MONTHS' TRAVEL 

In the grounds of the Victoria College we saw an ancient 
cylindrical monolith, with a very old inscription. We returned 
to our hotel through the " civil lines," as the European quarter 
is called. Paying our bills, and making our way to the station, 
the horses as usual jibbed on the bridge of boats, so we were 
obliged to walk over. Midway we saw a corpse floating on 
the surface of the water, near one of the pontoons, from the 
face and eyes of which a crow, which flew lazily away as we 
stopped to gaze, had evidently been supping. I notice that in 
this vicinity the jackals are fat, and that crows, kites, and vul- 
tures have in their flight an air of gorged indolence which 
implies good feeding. As for fish, I have discontinued its use. 
I shall not feel the deprivation, as to fresh-v^dit&r fish I was 
never very partial. We took dinner and train at Mogulserai, 
and turned in for the night. On arriving at Allahabad we 
found our luggage all right. 

N. W. P. R. R., January lo, 1873. 

Daylight disclosed to us a country dry and barren except 
where irrigated, on which the saleratus-patches, ground-squir- 
rels, and occasional herds of antelope reminded us of the 
Humboldt Valley. At Toondla Junction, about eleven o'clock, 
we took the usual branch line for Agra, and it was not long 
before we saw the dome of the Taj looming up through the 
dust-laden air. Like the dome of our Capitol at Washington, 
that of St. Peter's at Rome, or the Mosque of the citadel at 
Cairo, the white, glittering structure of the Taj seems to form 
the centre of the landscape from every point of view. Faiite 
de mieiix, we took billet at Beaumont's, a hotel of past reputa- 
tion, which has now fallen into especially incompetent hands. 
An Englishman and wife,, and a roving Boston gentleman 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. 6 1 



named M , are, beside ourselves, the only guests. The 

night was balmy, the moon bright, and, as it is the correct 
thing to do, we Americans drove together to the Taj. Alight- 
ing at the grand gateway and ascending a few steps, we saw 
through the arches, and at the end of the vista, that marvel- 
lous pile of marble, the most beautiful tribute ever paid by 
man to the memory of a beloved wife. The first view shows 
its beauty, but time and study are required to take in the 
perfection of the work. The tomb and its surroundings oc- 
cupy three terraces. The first is a beautiful garden, which 
the government has the good taste to keep in perfect order. 
An avenue of trees, with a long reservoir down the middle, 
full of fountains, stretches in charming perspective from the 
gate to the building. Similar avenues cross the main one, 
and the view at the end of each is closed by some appro- 
priate piece of architecture. The second terrace is of red 
sandstone, on the front of which is the river Jumna, and at 
either end are two mosques precisely similar, of which one 
is styled the answer to the other. The third terrace is all of 
white marble, and includes the tomb and the minarets at the 
four corners of the plateau. Seen by moonlight, the darker 
inlaid- work and the discoloration disappear, and all is pure 
white. The lines and tracery are softened and blended, and 
it seems so delicate and intangible that one would hardly be 
surprised if at some moment it should melt like a cloud 
into "thin air." After having sufficiently contemplated the 
moonlieht scene, we went into the interior, which had been 
illuminated by blue-lights. This gave a distinctness and 
beauty to the walls, the inside, the dome, and the lace-like 
marble screen surrounding the central mosaic-inlaid memo- 

9 



62 TWO MONTHS' TRAVEL 

rials of Nour-Jehan and her husband, such as no dayhght 
can produce. 

Agra, January it, 1873. 

The world owes to the Mogul emperors, who descended 
from Tamerlane, and who reigned between the years of our 
Lord 1526 and 1707, the construction of most of the architec- 
tural gems which lie in the vicinity of Delhi and Agra. Their 
succession is as follows : Baber, Houmayoun, Akbar, Jehanghir, 
Shah Jehan, and Aurungzebe. To their Mohammedan tenets 
is perhaps due the simplicity which characterizes their works, 
preventing them from encumbering their designs with gro- 
tesque representations of nature, and leading them to look 
for beauty in perfection of material, variety of detail, and ex- 
quisite finish. The palace of Akbar, within the fort, which 
we visited this afternoon, though somewhat dilapidated by 
man and time, presents much of interest. There is a beau- 
tiful bathing-hall, with tepidarium and calidarium, of which 
the ceiling is inlaid alternately with sections of mirror and 
marble, the walls filled with niches for lamps, some being 
behind the sheet of water which fell into the tanks. It can 
be imagined a most brilliant sight when illuminated, even if 
your fancy does not people it with half a hundred water- 
splashing Indian nymphs disporting therein. The courts, 
halls, kiosks of the river front are generally inlaid with white 
marble, and exhibit great beauty. It is gratifying to see how 
thoroughly the authorities are conducting the repairs of these 
structures : the inlaid and perforated marble, which is in 
progress, is as handsome as the original, and shows that the 
workmen of Agra have not lost the art which would enable 
them to rebuild the ancient monuments, if the designs only 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. 63 

were preserved. In the Pearl Mosque, built by Shah Jehan, 
he seemed to endeavor to rival his own Taj in beauty. It is 
of the same snowy marble, rectangular in form. The pave- 
ment is divided by inlaid lines into spaces for each worshipper, 
with a point on each showing the direction of Mecca. At the 
sides of the mosque are halls separated from the main one 
by beautiful screen-work, with similar smaller rectangles for 
the devotions of the women. I cannot understand the pious 
zeal and solicitude of the sex under a religion which does not 
grant them souls for salvation. They make here very nice 
work in soapstone, and I bought a model of the Taj, which I 
intend giving to my architectural chief. General Meigs, with 
illustrative photographs, if I can get it home. A native or- 
chestra came and played for our delectation on quaint lutes, 
drums, and guitars, which they accompanied, not unmusically, 
with their voices. I tried to imagine that such were the strains 
with which Indian lovers poured out their amorous souls at the 
feet or lattices of their Lalla Rookhs or Nourmahals. My 
imaginings were rudely disturbed, however, when I discovered 
that they were trying to regale me with English songs, ot 
which the burden was "Oh, Poor Lucy Neal" and "He's a 
Jolly Good Fellow," and others of that ilk. 

Our afternoon's drive was to the mausoleum of Akbar, at 
Secundra. The real tomb containing his remains is in a deep 
vault under the centre of the building. This arises in four 
stories of sandstone, surmounted by a fifth of white marble, 
in the centre of which is a richly-carved sarcophagus, sur- 
rounded by a gallery of elaborate marble screen-work. As 
was frequently the case among the Moguls, Akbar built his 
structure for his own interment, and used it as a pleasure 



64 



TWO MONTHS' TRAVEL 



retreat until his death. We drove to the Taj just before sun- 
down, and saw the illumination of daylight fade into moon- 
light. Everybody tries to criticise the Taj. Bishop Heber 
objects to the minarets ; Ida Pfeiffer thinks small beer of it by 
moonlight ; Ireland considers the dome too heavy. Without 
admitting the objections of the others, I have taken exception 
to the rectangular openings by which it is lighted, which, I 
think, should have been made to conform more nearly to the 
lines of the arches under which they are placed. After all, 
the Taj is provoking, for the reason that you study in vain 
to imagine an improvement. You feel that any addition or 
curtailment would prove a blemish. 

Agra, January 12, 1873. 
Having sent out relays of horses, we made an early start 
to visit the ruins of Akbar's stronghold and palaces at Futteh- 
pore Sikri. We drove over a good road, about twenty-two 
miles, in two and a half hours. At the dak bungalow we took 
a breakfast we had brought with us, secured a guide who was 
the son of a guide whose father was a guide before him (a 
fact set forth in numerous testimonials), and started to see 
the ruins. The principal buildings were on high ground, and 
surrounded by a strong wall some six or seven miles in cir- 
cumference. Below, on each side, within the walls, are the 
villages of Sikri and Futtehpore, from which the ruins take 
their name. The tomb of the Sheik Selim Shisti, whose resi- 
dence here caused Akbar to select the spot for the site of his 
city, is the first attraction. The tomb itself is small, but highly 
finished in carved white marble. The surroundings make it 
one of the most extraordinary spots in India. The quad- 
rangle in which it is placed is about five hundred feet square. 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. 



65 



A fine mosque is on one side, and on another an immense 
gateway, which is one hundred and twenty feet high from the 
ground outside. We were attracted by seeing on the wall, 
near the gate, some nearly naked men, standing at least sixty 
feet above a large tank or reservoir. When they saw that 
we were looking, they leaped downward into the water; during 
the first part of the fall their arms were extended above the 
head, and the legs were spread apart with a kicking motion, by 
which they seemed to keep the vertical. Just before reaching 
the surface the legs came together, the body was straightened, 
with the arms at the side, and each shot into the water like 
an arrow, soon reappearing, none the worse for their perilous 
leap, and with chattering teeth demanding backsheesh. The 
skill of these divers is attained by great practice, commenced 
at an early age. We occupied three hours in going over this 
magnificent relic of past wealth and power. I can appreciate 
the labor which it represents, and the kindness with which time 
and this climate have treated the elaborate carvings in stone, 
but I don't envy the departed monarch his comfort. Abroad, 
his surroundings were no doubt barbaric and sumptuous. In 
private, he slept in a richly-sculptured brownstone hovel de- 
void of modern improvements. At tiffin we inspected the 
bungalow book, and found the names of several previous 

tenants of our acquaintance. Among others our friend C 

L indulged in a growl at the expense of the service, or 

something of the kind. Our homeward road was lit by the 
setting sun, and we saw many charming pictures of Indian 
rural life : oxen drawing up from wells great leathern 
buckets of water for irrigation ; laborers, primitively dressed, 
farming with equally primitive ploughs and hoes ; camels 



66 TWO MONTHS' TRAVEL 

grazing, or reposing with snaky, outstretched necks ; tall birds 
standing nearly the height of a man ; and occasional deer 
and antelope feeding fearlessly close by the road, emboldened 
by the immunity which the uncarnivorous Hindoo accords to 
animal life. 

Agra, January 13, 1873. 

The only new thing we did this day was to cross the river 
by the bridge of iron pontoons to the Rambaugh and the 
tomb of Etmaddowlah, a clever adventurer, great-uncle and 
grandfather-in-law to that Nour-Jehan who is under the Taj. 
It is not the least beautiful of the Agra monuments. 

We devoted the day to a review of the sights of Agra. We 
revisited the forts and the bazaars, and wound up by moon- 
light visits to the Taj, with a general and persistent blaze of 
blue and red lights inside and out, till the country round must 
have feared that the marble itself was in flames. 

Agra, January 14, 1873. 
One cannot stay always at Agra, nor does the luxury of 
the Beaumont hostelry invite permanent residence. Other 
beauties and novelties in India are to be explored: so this 
morning we bundle together our travelling fixtures, lock our 
trunks, take a last look at the city, as it fades into the distance, 
from our departing train, and by eleven o'clock a.m. we are at 
Toondla, on the main line, booked for Delhi. As we puffed 
along through country both cultivated and irrigated, I saw 
more antelope and deer than ever I saw in the same time 
on the North Platte or Medicine Bow. The indifference with 
which some of them would cock one eye at the passing train, 
still continuing to graze, was instructive to witness. I am told 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. 



67 



that they have regular grazing-grounds, and often show fight 
with their horns to the Ryots (peasants) who try to drive them 
from their crops. In some districts the natives object to the 
killing of tigers, on account of their services in keeping down 
the deer. This leniency only exists among the worshippers of 
Brahma and Buddha, as the vicinity of a Mohammedan village 
may often be predicated upon the greater timidity of the 
game. This forbearance breeds something like impudence in 
the lower animals : monkeys live like kings, at the expense 
of their subjects ; horses jib under Hindoo hands without 
any wholesome dread of the lash ; the sacred cows hustle 
the pedestrian on the street, or help themselves to any object 
they fancy from the way-side stalls, while the victim dares not 
inflict a blow, which he knows would cost a riot ; sparrows flock 
into your room at daylight, through every open window and 
door, and banish sleep by their chattering and whirring of 
wings. They alight on your bed and musquito-curtains, drink 
from your bath-tub and water-jug, and watch you with a most 
critical air as you perform your ablutions and toilet. To the 
crows I cannot so easily reconcile myself, and when I see 
them walking over the breakfast crockery or tugging at the 
bread, I cannot help wondering what was the last object 
touched by their feet and bills. Bergh, in this country, would 
find his occupation gone. Their love of flowers, and their 
constant use of them as religious offerings to their deities, 
with their gentleness with animals, give a color of refinement 
to the worship of this people, which seems an embodiment 
of Coleridge's idea, — 

" He prayeth well who loveth well 
Both man and bird and beast." 



68 TWO MONTHS' TRAVEL 

You may be very sure that to go to any important city in 
India you must either go off the main line of rail or cross a 
river ; for Delhi you must do both. We reach there at about 
six P.M., by switching off at Ghazeeabad. We find Hamilton's 
hotel perched on the city wall, with a good view of the highly- 
cultivated fields of the Jumna below. 

Delhi, January 15, 1873. 
We had a fair sleep during the night, somewhat modified 
by the very neighborly and musical disposition of the Delhi 
jackals, and the early visit of the sparrows seeking the earlier 

worm. We found our friend M , of Boston, at breakfast, 

and accepted his offer to be our pilot during the morning, for 
which his previous arrival had qualified him. Our first visit 
was to the royal palace and fort built by Shah Jehan, the 
scene of the magnificence of the Mogul emperors, and more 
recently the residence of the last king of Delhi, during the 
rebellion and siege of the city, and the theatre of an indis- 
criminate massacre of the Europeans by the Sepoys. The 
Pearl Mosque, or private chapel for the female portion of the 
king's family, the extensive baths, and the buildings styled 
the Halls of Public and Private Audience, are in good preser- 
vation, and retain much of their beautiful carved work as well 
as their original paint and gilding. In the middle of the first 
hall stood the famous Peacock throne, worth six millions of 
pounds, and looted by the Persians under Nadir Shah in a.d. 
1759. How poor are countries nowadays in "spolia opima"! 
Even Butler, in New Orleans, could be charged with taking 
nothing more valuable than spoons. Next came the Jumna 
mosque of Shah Jehan, said to be the finest in India. In 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. 



69 



general characteristics these mosques present much sameness. 
All have a high, square front containing a deep central niche, 
with lower and similar wings on each side, on which are the 
minarets ; the same paved quadrangle, with lofty gates, sur- 
mounted by arched galleries. In a corner was a railed space, 
into which we were conducted, and were shown some hand- 
somely-illuminated old copies of the Koran, then a print of the 
naked foot of Mahomet in marble, a sandal which the Prophet 
had worn, and finally a hair of his sacred beard, secured by wax 
to a piece of glass, each relic carefully stowed away in a box 
on a bed of dried jessamine flowers. After gazing with due 
reverence at these holy objects, and paying the necessary fee, 
we went to the Black Mosque, built in 1400, a simple and 
inornate structure. We looked in at the Delhi Museum, 
where we saw some good work of steel inlaid with gold, and 
at least half a dozen more impressions, of various shapes and 
sizes, of Mahomet's feet in marble, showing the frequent use 
of that kind of pavement in his day, and his habit of slipping 
around hard and often. In the Queen's Gardens we saw quite 
a collection of wild animals and birds, and a large elephant in 
black marble. 

A lot of jugglers — about half a dozen men and women — 
entertained us after tiffin. Most of their tricks I had seen. 
They made a mango-tree grow, but, I thought, rather clumsily ; 
the best things I saw were the apparent swallowing of powders 
of various colors, and the spitting out of the same dry and 
separately ; also a performer who broke a thread into small 
pieces, then apparently swallowed it, and then drew it out of 
his side. You were allowed to examine the skin where it 
came out, and the deception was perfect. During the per- 



70 TIVO MONTHS' TRAVEL 

formance the principal fellow asked for some brandy, insisting 
upon at least half a pint being poured into a cup in his pos- 
session. We all supposed that it was to be used in some trick, 
as blue-fire or other conjuration. He simply, however, stowed 
it away among his traps, and nothing more was heard of it; 
he no doubt carried it home for private consumption. The 
devout Mussulman obeys the law of the Prophet to the letter, 
and does not touch zvine, but has no objection to violating 
it in the spirit by a gentle stimulus of brandy. We passed 
out by the Cashmere gate, and visited the ridge along which 
were the lines held by the English during what is called " the 
siege of Delhi." This is rather a misnomer, as for a long time 
they rather defended themselves than threatened the city. A 
fine memorial tower has been erected, into the sides of which 
are set tablets giving the names and rank of officers who died 
or fell during the siege. 

Delhi, January i6, 1873. 

Like Rome, Delhi is one of the natural marts and capitals 
of the world. Alike, too, in another respect, splendid as are 
the modern cities, they fade beside the magnificence of their 
ancient ruins. For twenty centuries the Valley of the Jumna 
at this point has been the residence of a succession of vain 
and luxurious monarchs. Never aiming at utihty, never con- 
structing a road or a bridge, they expended their vast revenues, 
with whatever additional labor and material they could wring 
from their subjects, in building and adorning palaces, baths, 
mosques, and tombs, and keeping in idle splendor themselves, 
their queens, concubines, and children, with droves of lazy 
priests and armies of Sybarite retainers. An Indian king 
now living, going to worship in state, has had five miles of 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. 71 

elephants and mounted men in line as his own retinue, be- 
tween himself and his eldest son, who was similarly attended. 
Architects, painters, and jewellers, carvers of wood, stone, and 
ivory, manufacturers of silks, shawls, and fine tissues, all as- 
sembled in the vicinity of the spendthrift court. The Punjaub, 
Cabul, Cashmere, Persia, Thibet, and even China sought here 
a market for their wares and products, until Delhi became per- 
manently established as a commercial centre for the whole of 
the un-Europeanized East. Before the English rule, at in- 
tervals almost regular, some northern, hardier, and more war- 
like race, attracted by its vast wealth, would descend upon the 
city, loot and demolish the palaces, carry into captivity and 
slavery droves of the inhabitants. The natural advantages 
of the site are such, however, that a new population would 
soon aggregate itself, and some monarch assume the sway 
who, rather than utilize the debris of the old, preferred to 
connect his fame with the erection of a new city. Palaces 
and temples would arise in the vicinity, around which the 
population would collect. This process, and sometimes mere 
regal caprice, has left ruins of ancient cities for twenty miles 
around the Delhi of to-day, far surpassing in extent and per- 
fection those of the Campagna at Rome, and probably any 
other in the world. 

We started out this morning to see old Delhi, our ob- 
jective point being the Kutub Minar, eleven miles from the 
walls of the present city. Throughout this country we saw 
great quantities of the castor-oil bean in culture, in some 
instances, in favoring climate, becoming fairly a tree. In my 
ignorance, knowing but one use for the product of the plant, 
I felt much sympathy for the woes and throes which the poor 



72 



TWO MONTHS' TRAVEL 



Hindoo children must be called upon to undergo, but when I 
learned that its general application is to purposes of lubrica- 
tion and illumination, I was greatly cheered and comforted. 
On the road we stopped to look at an observatory of Jey 
Singh, similar to the one at Benares, but on a much larger 
scale. There is a sundial with a gnomon fifty-six feet high, 
and some buildings whose inner walls presented cylindrical 
and hemispherical surfaces, whose scientific uses my philos- 
ophy could not clearly divine. From the highway we could 
see tombs and mosques scattered through the country as far as 
the eye could reach. One or two which were near we visited; 
that erected to Suftur Jung resembles the Taj in many of its 
details. The Kutub Minar, always on the horizon, loomed 
larger and larger as we approached, until we stood at the foot 
and made our necks ache by looking up and trying to appre- 
ciate its majestic proportions. The books say that it is the 
loftiest column in the world, and that its top is reached by a 
flight of three hundred and seventy-five steps. At any rate, 

J took all there were, and I didn't. It must have been 

heavy work, for I could hear him groan and puff when he 
emerged upon the gallery at the top, even from where I took 
my ease in the shade below. He tells me that even from this 
height there was no part of the landscape not covered with 
ruins. Behind the tower, and around the court, is a queer 
cloister, supported on columns said to have been taken from 
twenty-four Hindoo temples; at any rate, there are no two 
alike. The iconoclastic zeal of the Mohammedan is shown 
in the fact that wherever there is any attempt at representing 
men or animals in their mouldings or capitals, the head has 
always been carefully chiselled or hammered off. In the 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. 



73 



centre of this area is the celebrated iron pillar of Pirtwi Raj, 
and on one side the most beautiful ruined arches I have 
ever seen, but to which nothing but a picture can do justice. 
As vire wandered about among the ruins, we came upon a 
crowd listening to some rude music, watching a man in gaudy 
costume going through a slow kind of nautch or dance. The 
performance broke up, however, as soon as we appeared, and 
the whole crowd followed us, as apparently a new attraction. 
The reason was soon evident, as we came to a well said to 
be eighty feet in depth, into which divers immediately prepared 
to jump, and did so as soon as they saw our hands searching 
our pockets for coin. 

After a noonday meal at an excellent public bungalow close 
by, we returned to town by another road ; on this was the 
fine tomb built for the Emperor Houmayoun by his widow, — a 
place made interesting by the fact that there Captain Hodgson 
captured first the king and afterwards his sons, the Delhi 
princes. The latter he shot with his own hand, while con- 
veying them to the city, ostensibly for fear of rescue, but 
really because he foresaw the leniency which would be shown 
them if brought to civil trial. We visited the Hall of Sixty- 
four Pillars, and saw some modern tombs with screen-work 
equal to anything ancient. There was here another deep well 
and diving-boys, where the plunge was made rather more dif- 
ficult by a forward leap into the air being necessary in order 
to clear the sides. We inspected the old city of Delhi, which 
dates back to the fifteenth century, and is surrounded by walls 
sixty feet in height. It is a great rookery for the peasantry 
who cultivate the lands adjacent. A visit to the " Lat" or Staff 
of Feroze Shah, a stone monolith like that in the Queen's Col- 



74 TIVO MONTHS' TRAVEL 

lege grounds at Benares, brought us to the vicinity of the 
Delhi gate, after a hard day's work of sight-seeing, of which 
this account gives but an imperfect idea. 

Delhi, January 17, 1873. 
We devoted to-day to the bazaars. The painting of land- 
scapes and miniatures on ivory, the embroidery of caps and 
slippers, the shops where jewelry, shawls, and perfumed oils 
are sold, are among the spectacles of Delhi. As we strolled 
among the stalls we could see among the dealers the imme- 
diate raising of the price at the sight of a white complexion. 
Frequently, when I really wanted anything, I would point it 
out to Abdul and send him back for it; he would generally 
get it for half the price I should have been made to pay. I 
find, however, that this involves the loss of much valuable time, 
as he will haggle fiercely for half an hour over a reduction of 
two annas (six cents). We saw shops not fit for cow-stables, 
where shawls and jewelry were shown us to the value of tens 
of thousands of rupees, whose owners rode in liveried car- 
riages, but who have every day been hanging around our 
hotel, humbly soliciting our custom, with coolies carrying their 
valuables in packs like peddlers. When I thought of the dear 
members of my family at home, I could not resist temptation, 
and became extravagant beyond my utmost intention. We 
had half an hour after tiffin, which we devoted to seeing some 
female jugglers and tumblers. The most extraordinary thing 
they did was the placing by one woman of two straws in the 
earth, at proper intervals, and picking them up with her eye- 
lids, leaning backwards as she did so. The habit of asking 
and giving testimonials is not the least odd and annoying of 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. ne 

the customs in India. Every native who performs any service 
for you wants your written acknowledgment of the fact : the 
coachman and valet de place who have taken you about, the 
"dhobe" who has mangled your linen and smashed your 
buttons, the juggler who has cheated your eyes, the merchant 
who has robbed you, and the barber who has shaved you, all 
collect before your departure, and "salaam" the "sahib" for 
a "chit;" and the greater nuisance is that it is usual to give 
them. 

We took the train about five p.m., and continued our 
journey "due north." 

OuDE, SciNDE & PuNjAUB RAILROAD, January i8, 1873. 
The break which occurs in crossing the Sutledj is one of 
the bugbears in railway travel in the Punjaub, and the con- 
struction of the bridge has been one of the stumbling-blocks 
of the corps of engineers in India. The river has a bed in 
alluvial soil, of great breadth, across which, during freshets, 
in different years, new channels are formed, a mile apart. 
The bridge itself is said to be a mile and a quarter in length. 
Although the piles are sunk some forty feet, when the stream 
rises, some of them each year are washed away or rendered 
dangerous by the score. All the resources of Indian engi- 
neers have thus far failed to make them permanent. This site 
of the bridge was said to have been peremptorily fixed by the 
authorities so that it should be covered by the fort at Phillour : 
it would seem that the best point to throw the bridge should 
have decided the site for the fort. In going north you arrive 
at the river about daylight, an hour at which no Christian man 
can be amiable when deprived of sleep. We tumble out, how- 



76 



TWO MONTHS' TRAVEL 



ever, rub our eyes, Abdul collects our small luggage, and, by 
the light of lanterns and a gibbous moon, we are stowed into 
daks resembling a Continental diligence. As we resignedly 
smoke our cigars over the bridge of boats, we are alternately 
regaled and instructed by the talk of two types of the British 
army: — one, an old camp-woman, with a child and native ser- 
vant; the other, two young subalterns, evidently visiting for 
the first time this part of India ; — the first chaffering, coaxing, 
ordering, and scolding in an odd combination of Bengalee 
and English ; the latter giving their opinions of the situation 
with much supercilious ignorance. One, I remember, thought 
that in England the bridge of the Sutledj would have been 
built at the rate of a pier and span per day. We breakfast 
at Phillour, whence a new train takes us to Umritsur by 
eleven o'clock a.m. The first good cup of coffee since I left 
Calcutta warmed my heart at the station, and for this I shall 
remember it, although the lions of the place are the Golden 
Temple and the cashmere shawl manufactories. To see the 
town, we charter a one-eyed driver in a soldier's red coat, 
with his barouche. After a turn through the Rambagh public 
garden, we proceeded to the " Lake of Immortality" and 
Garooka-burbar, or Golden Temple of the Sikhs. Their 
religion is a cross between those of Brahma and Mahomet. 
This is their Mecca and Holy of Holies. The tank, lined 
with stone steps, forms a square, with sides about a furlong 
in length. The temple stands in the centre of the lake, and 
to it leads a stone causeway, lit up at night by rows of gilt 
lamps. At one corner of the tank we leave our carriage, take 
off our shoes, replace them by cloth socks, such as country- 
women used to wear in winter to church, and, under the 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. n-j 

guidance of a policeman, enter the sacred precincts. There 
are some rather rich temples and buildings outside the Tank ; 
but its noted magnificence commences with the gates of the 
causeway, which, as well as the main doors of the temple, are 
covered with plates of silver. The domes are of gold-plated 
copper ; and nothing can exceed the richness, in color and 
gilding, of the interior. The manufacture of shawls might, I 
thought, have had some influence on the excellent taste dis- 
played in the combinations of hues. Squatted on the floor 
were the worshippers, chanting their devotions in concert, 
with an orchestra of rude instruments. One devotee, evidently 
a mountain pilgrim, in a wild costume, strode around the 
cloisters, bow in hand, and shield slung over the middle of 
his back, reminding me of a Nez Perces chief On a silken 
cushion lay the visible type of their worship, — the Holy Book 
of Rites, — superintended by one of the six hundred priests 
said to be attached to the shrine. We paid our entrance-fee 
to one of the attendants, who, after placing it in a box in 
front of the book, repaid our munificence by presenting us 
with some singular lumps of rock candy, neither clean nor 
appetizing in appearance. The attendant priest who had 
taken us in charge then conducted us through some pretty 
gardens to a neighboring mosque, which also had a tank. 
He said, "Look! there are the flying foxes," calling our at- 
tention to thousands of what seemed to be hanging birds' 
nests in the adjacent trees, and to a black flight of what I 
at first supposed were crows. These singular creatures are 
immense bats, with a most foxy head and fur, whose leathery 
wings must measure nearly two feet across when outstretched. 
They did not seem purely nocturnal, as plenty of them were 



78 



TWO MONTHS' TRAVEL 



flying or climbing about through the branches ; most, however, 
were asleep, and, folded in their black wings, were attached 
by the hooks growing thereon to the smaller branches, their 
bodies being enclosed as if by a bag. The sides of the tank 
were lined with the most pitiable lot of beggars, suffering 

from every conceivable form of misery and deformity. J 's 

heart and purse are always open to this class of unfortunates: 
he cannot resist the appeal of an outstretched hand. He 
generally gives silver in a country where able-bodied labor 
only earns copper, and the amount of his alms must, at times, 
have astonished the poor creatures. It was beautiful to see 
him, as he left the grounds of the mosque, with his ruddy 
face smiling pleasantly beneath his white hat and umbrella, at 
the head of a crew of mendicants clamoring for " backsheesh." 
He was talking to them as if they understood him, admon- 
ishing the sturdy beggars, pitying the really afflicted, and 
distributing coin right and left. Our guide says, " He very 
kind sahib," as he points out some new deserver of charity. 
We saw hand cashmere embroidery going on everywhere, 
and in one place the weaving of the cheaper kind of India 
shawl. This was done on a kind of double loom : four men 
sit at each side of the warp, with a maze of bobbins of dif- 
ferent-colored threads in front of each ; one man drones out 
the technical description from a parchment manuscript, when 
each man passes one or more spools through the necessary 
number of threads ; the whole is then pressed by the beam 
into place. The process is so slow that, high-priced as the 
shawls are, I do not see how the workmen make a living; 
indeed, they are notoriously poor and filthy, and their huts in 
the vicinity of Umritsur are a breeding-place for cholera, and 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. ^q 

are sometimes destroyed by the authorities for sanitary 
reasons. Our next visit was to a shop where more ex- 
pensive shawls are put together. We saw one lying on the 
floor, which the head-man said was very valuable, in pieces of 
all sizes and shapes, none beyond a few inches square. The 
separation and assembling of the parts must be a problem 
beyond a dissected map or a Chinese puzzle. In another 
shop, that of one of the principal shawl merchants, by ap- 
pointment to H. R. H. the Duke of Edinburgh (and all that 

kind of thing), J- selected some shawls, the recipients of 

which will be able to strike envy into the souls of their less 
favored lady friends. 

A way train takes us at five p.m. to Lahore, where we sleep 
at the Royal Victoria Hotel. 

Lahore, January 19, 1873. 

We were somewhat disappointed on not finding our Boston 

friend, M , at the Royal Victoria, but in an early morning 

stroll I found a house nearly opposite ours, called by a singular 
coincidence of loyalty the New Victoria, in which I concluded 
he was lodged, as was proved when we sallied out sight-seeing, 
and encountered him on similar intent, and made him join us. 
In our visit to the fort, we saw some handsome mosques, 
tombs, and pavilions, from the roof of one of which we 
caught our first sight of the Himalayas with their snow- 
covered tops in the distance. In the bazaar was an inter- 
esting collection of the arms and armor of the subjugated 
Sikhs. There were helmets and plate-armor, many fine Da- 
mascus musket-barrels and blades of singular form, a flint- 
lock revolver working on a similar principle to that of Colt, 
and some models of cannon turning on an axle, intended to 



go TIVO MONTHS' TRAVEL 

be fired in volleys together. We crossed the river to the 
tomb of Jehanghir, which was formerly very fine, and situated 
in extensive gardens, but the richest of the ornaments are 
said to have been "looted" by the Sikhs to adorn the Golden 
Temple of Umritsur. The road was long and sandy, the day 
hot, and the load heavy, and on our return our single horse 
seemed perceptibly thinned, and as though he had been drawn 
out like wire. We passed the celebrated manufactory of "pit" 
ice, where water is frozen in even tolerably warm weather by 
exposure at night, on an open plain, in shallow, porous earthen 
pans placed on straw. The product is collected and pounded 
into pits for summer use. In the afternoon we saw some fine 
gardens, laid out by Shah Jehan, in which were large orange- 
groves and three terraces of fountains, in which the water 
was used successively. We are so near the mountains that 
it is quite cold at night, and fires are far from uncomfortable. 

Lahore, January 20, 1873. 

I COULD not resist the feeling that Lahore is the middle of 
our journey, and that to leave was somehow to start for home : 
so I determined this morning to take a "square sleep" after 
two weeks of pretty continuous travelling and sight-seeing; 
but the birds chattering about my room, the creaking of the 
adjacent jar-surrounded water-wheel, used for irrigation, and 
Abdul bringing in the morning coffee, all combined to turn 
me out at daylight as usual. 

I must here stop to pay a tribute to our boy Abdul. I find 
him about the best, most faithful and willing man I have ever 
seen in his position. My preconceived idea of Indian servants led 
me to suppose that we should require at least one for each of us ; 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. gj 

but Abdul goes against Scripture : he " serves two masters," 
and does it pretty well. He is our interpreter, guide, broker, 
courier, and body and table servant, all of which is, after all, 
more than any one man can do perfectly. A dozen Hindoos 
at least would be required to do his work. With his multifa- 
rious duties he has little time to sleep or eat. The first he 
catches curled up in front of the door of one of his masters, 
ready for a call. As he cannot use our food, he catches his 
"grub," so to speak, "on the fly:" he jumps from the gharry 
as we go through bazaars, and gulps down a pipkin of milk, or 
seizes sugar-cane or some unsavory-looking cake from the 
stall of some co-religionist, and munches it in transitu. He 
goes to sleep later and gets up earlier than ourselves, and is 
always good-natured and zealous. He travels and fares third- 
class, but will fight if anything less than first is attempted to 
be passed upon us. When the peace of the party is threat- 
ened by faithless gharrywallas, avaricious coolies, or imperti- 
nent hotel-runners, he rages like a lion. He tries his hand at 
supplying all our necessities ; he mends clothes, sews on but- 
tons, cobbles shoes, cooks, whips up a chutney or curry in ten 
minutes, or spends a week in the composition of the former. 
He fears that greenhorns like ourselves may be robbed, and 
is always asking, "Master, where is your watch?" and, if we 
are flush, insists on taking part of our money and putting it 
under lock and key. I think our work is telling on him ; but 
I trust he will last till we get to Ceylon. And all this for fifteen 
dollars per month ! 

A botanical garden, where were some animals and birds, 
a museum exhibiting a big bronze gun, handsome specimens 
of native jewelry and tissues, some old statuary showing an 



82 TWO MONTHS' TRAVEL 



impress of Grecian art by the conquerors of Porus, and a 
drive outside of the city wall, constituted our sight-seeing for 
the day. 

Railway O. & P., January 21, 1873. 
We got up early this fine frosty morning to take the back 
track. The usual balky horse, however, nearly succeeded in 
keeping us from reaching the first morning train, but he finally 
consented to be " prevailed on" to move, and landed us at the 
station in time. At Umritsur we found awaiting us to make 
" salaam" the shawl merchant and the attendant priest of our 
former visit, the latter richly dressed, carrying for us a present 
of sacred flowers. We recross the Sutledj before noon, and 
are detained in the hot sun at least two hours longer than was 

within reason. J , with his love for children, passed the 

time with great satisfaction in watching the antics of a black, 
chubby Hindoo boy, loaded down with bangles, anklets, and 
necklaces in silver (and clothed in little else), who insisted on 
wearing his father's slippers, looking, as he frolicked about, like 
an Indian Cupid in snow-shoes. In recrossing the Sutledj on 
the bridge of boats, I was amused at our omnibus driver, a 
native in out-at-the-elbows livery, who put on most important 
airs, and as we progressed gave the world notice of his pres- 
ence by alternately cracking his whip and blowing a horn. His 
proud career was interrupted by frequent stoppages to repair 
a defective harness, greatly to his discomfiture: so worked up 
did he become that finally he jumped off his box, and with his 
whip administered a sound thrashing to a youth who stood on 
the bridge gazing respectfully at the repair of the latest dis- 
aster. He probably considered his troubles a case of " evil 
eye;" and, having thus refreshed himself and relieved his mind, 



JN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. 



83 



, he resumed the reins, and drove triumphantly and without 
further accident to the end of his stage. In returning, we saw 
by daylight much country which, in going north, had been part 
of our nocturnal ride. The soil of the "great plains," so 
called, is, like that of the Great Basin with us, naturally a 
desert, but made fertile by irrigation. The increase of the 
population of India under the steady and just rule of Great 
Britain makes new productive land necessary for its support. 
The government, therefore, has taken in hand a very extensive 
system of irrigating canals. Water usually, however, comes 
from wells, out of which the fluid is Hfted by swapes or by 
oxen, who either walk down an inclined plane, lifting great 
leathern buckets by a pulley, or turn a wheel which lifts and 
empties an endless chain of earthen pots. This would be 
useful in CaHfornia; but it is doubtful whether any general 
system of irrigation can succeed there, on account of the 
high price of labor, unless water can be made to distribute 
itself as in the Mormon " Takias". We had some bother 
from the stupidity of a conductor who had collected Abdul's 
return ticket, and to get him along we were obliged to have 
a pow-wow at every station. 

Cawnpore, January 22, 1873. 

After a tiresome and uninteresting journey, we reached 
Cawnpore at about three o'clock p.m., and took up quarters 
for the night at a hotel of the same name. It should be an 
excellent place of entertainment if we are to believe all the 
complimentary things written in the hotel book. We took a 
pony wagon and visited the spots made historical by the 
mutiny : the cemetery where the officers and soldiers who 
lost their lives are buried, the entrenched lines from within 



84 ^^O MONTHS' TRAVEL 

which General Wheeler surrendered the force afterwards so 
treacherously massacred by Nana Sahib as they were em- 
barking for Allahabad at the Suttee-Chaora-Ghat, which we 
visited. Finally, we enter the beautiful garden which marks 
the scene of the massacre of the women and children, and of 
the well into which their bodies were thrown. Over this is 
a memorial piece of statuary by Baron Marochetti. 

Cawnpore, January 23, 1873. 

We took an early start for the Lucknow train, and en route 
made an exploration of the town, which possesses little of in- 
terest except a new and well-kept Hindoo temple, with domes 
of unusual form and covered with elaborately-carved figures. 
Some of them seemed to have been suggested by Midsummer 
Night's Dream, as there were plenty of winged figures that 
might pass for fairies, and familiar Bottom with his ass's head 
was visible. As we crossed the bridge of boats to the station, 
we found on it two elephants in front of us. As I was playing 
Jehu, I took good care not to get on to the same span with the 
monsters. Their getting over at all spoke well for the buoy- 
ancy of the bridge. 

For almost the first time since we started, we were obliged 
to occupy a car with strangers, which perhaps has been our 
misfortune, as a man often learns a great deal from travelling 
residents of a country. Our hotel at Lucknow is " Hill's Im- 
perial," which is very central, and was formerly connected with 
the palace adjoining. To do Lucknow properly, it should be 
visited from Calcutta in the natural order in which it comes on 
the G. I. P. R. R. ; but we, who at first pushed by to Agra, to 
see it romantically by moonlight, find that we have detracted 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. 



85 



from the pleasure of our visit here by having established in 
our minds too high a standard by which to judge the monu- 
ments of the place. All travellers agree that, seen from a 
distance, it is one of the most striking cities in India ; but after 
the real white marble and massiveness of Agra and Delhi, and 
the real silver and gold of Umritsur, one does not feel like 
being put off with theatrical effects produced by whitewash 
stucco and Dutch metal. The whole is, moreover, compara- 
tively modern. It would seem that the architects might have 
studied from ancient models with good results, but they seem, 
instead, to have gone mad: the Kaiser Pasund is surmounted 
by what exactly suggests the quarter of an orange ; other 
structures are finished by large gilt umbrellas, like a New 
York sign, and some domes are only indicated by two inter- 
secting circles, while the front of the Martiniere seems de- 
signed from some sprawling coat of arms or an undertaker's 

hatchment. J says that Lucknow is just what one would 

expect in India if he had not read of the Taj and the Jummah 
Musjid. The reigning family seem to have abandoned en- 
tirely that simplicity which is one of the beauties of the faith 
of Islam. They adopted coats of arms, and decorated their 
gateways and arches with impossible fish and mermaids. 
They exhibited to posterity bad pictures of themselves and 
families, and the interior of their mosques had all the tinsel 
of a Roman Catholic chapel. The great halls of Imambara 
are really fine, and many temples and tombs have an interest 
derived from events in the mutiny. The Residency so long 
in siege, now in ruins, and pitted everywhere by the shot of 
the rebels, has judiciously been left to tell its own story, while 
the tombs and temples of Secundra Bagh and Shah Nujef, 



86 T^O MONTHS' TRAVEL 

where so many captured mutineers were put to the sword, 
show the terrible vengeance of which the Anglo-Saxon is 
capable, and are a perpetual admonition to those they hold 
in subjection. We spent a charming day among the historical 
scenes of '57, and in driving about the town and through the 
park. 

LucKNOW, January 24, 1873. 
A STROLL through the bazaars this morning repaid us by 
the sight of many pretty specimens of native silver-work and 
embroidery. We drove to the Alum Bagh, where is the tomb 
of Havelock, — a simple shaft, with a long-worded inscription. 
The tablet is rather an insult to the understanding, as any one 
likely to take the trouble to visit the grave is presumed to 
know something of the hero's record. My own impression is 
that something too much of stress is laid by their biographers 
upon the eminently Christian character of such men as Have- 
lock and Hodgson. War, in general, and especially the sup- 
pression of rebellion, where the few repress the many, requires 
fierce and cruel measures, which resemble in no respect, that I 
can discover, the teachings of Christ. The slaughter by thou- 
sands of a weaker race taken in arms, the execution and blow- 
ing of mutineers from guns, as was done under Havelock, 
shooting with his own hand men in cold blood, as Hodgson did 
the princes of Oude, shutting prisoners in a cell to let them 
die by scores from thirst and lack of ventilation, as was done 
by Cooper, on the Ravee, is war, and may be necessary, but I 
don't remember its being commanded in the New Testament. 
I can't, anyhow, justify my profession always on high moral 
grounds, — not that I haven't the most supreme admiration for 
the brave man who does his duty sternly and gallantly through 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. 



87 



the dangers and hardships of war, and takes Hfe while at the 
same time he freely exposes his own. 

We have seen more elephants in Lucknow than in all the 
rest of India toeether. On our road back we came across a 
large serai (or corral) belonging to the commissariat, where 
there were over sixty of the monsters. They were fastened 
by the leg at intervals around the square, and were feeding 
on sugar-cane, of which they would pick up a stalk daintily 
by the thumb and finger of the trunk, and push it into the 
mouth as a man eats a radish. It was a hot morning, and 
they had a way of covering their heads and backs with litter 
and blowing dust over themselves to keep off the flies. Two 
enormous fellows were said to be dangerous, and were chained 
by all their feet, even their keeper not liking to approach them. 
He said, "They have killed plenty men." One big fellow was 
being groomed by throwing pailfuls of water over him, and 
scraping him by a process resembling garden-hoeing. He 
seemed to enjoy it greatly, and at command held his trunk 
gingerly in the air, so as not to interfere with his attendant 

while scratching about his legs and chest. J made a hit 

to-day. In going to his bank for funds he picked up a bronze 
hookah-stand inlaid in silver with the arms of Oude, which had 
been " looted" in the palace on the capture of the city. 

I wrote to-day the first home letter I have found time to 

write in India. 

January 25, 1873. G. I. P. R. R. 

Starting off in the cars has hitherto been early work 

throughout our journey, but to take them as we did this 

morning, at half-past ten, is very reasonable. The cars on 

this branch railroad are divided into upper and lower class, 



gg TIVO MONTHS' TRAVEL 

and it strongly assures one of his position to take the former. 
There was a great crowd of natives at the station, seeking 
passage. Though they are the best customers of the road, 
but Httle attention is paid to their convenience, and it was not 
pleasant to see the way they were hustled about by the officials 
(generally natives), every one submitting with smiling, per- 
spiring patience. They were generally e7i route to Allahabad, 
to attend the mala or festival in progress. The common 
people here travel much, but seem to have little or no useful 
purpose in so doing. With us, when this class travels, it 
means business, — emigration, seeking work, or something of 
that practical nature ; but with the Hindoo it is a pilgrimage, 
a religious festival, a funeral, or a wedding. No native buys 
a ticket higher than second-class, and generally all castes 
crowd into the third. Here the Brahmin and Pariah are 
packed like figs in a box, and a contact ensues which would 
formerly have been degradation and infamy to the superior. 
The third-class fare is, however, very cheap, — money is saved, 
the rupee is almighty, — so I suppose the priests give a dis- 
pensation from caste in railway travelling. The other occu- 
pants of our carriage were a ritualistic High-Church-of-Eng- 
land parson and a keen Scotch Presbyterian indigo planter. 
We were together all day, and we got to know them very 
well. Both were intelligent men, and they had some funny 
sparring on religious questions. At Cawnpore we took a 
drive through the bazaars, which was not specially compen- 
sating. In changing trains at the station, we occupied, for the 
third time, car i8, in which we left Calcutta. Either first-class 
cars are scarce or this one must be following us. Half-past 
nine in the eveningf brought us to Allahabad and Kellner's 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. 



89 



Hotel. At an enjoyable cold supper we had a cold ham, the 
first I have seen so served in the country. Europeans gen- 
erally avoid the use of pork, a meat to which both Hindoo and 
Mohammedan object. It is said that when obliged to violate 
their consciences by cooking or serving it, before placing it on 
the table the servants form a circle and solemnly expectorate 
upon the accursed meat. I will not say that in this way it 
is served, — "just from the spit" — but will state that it is the 
Indian custom to remove the outside before carving. 

Allahabad, January 26, 1873. Sunday. 
I OBSERVED along the line of the G. I. P. R. R. numerous 
advertisements of Bristol's Sarsaparilla and other American 
medicines. I was told that the patentee, whose portrait 
adorns the bottle, with two lovely but rather pronounced 
American daughters, was honoring our hotel with his patron- 
age. The landlord this morning, thinking to gratify my 
national pride, remarked, "Those Hamerican medicines are 
making a great stir among the natives." I ventured to say 
that I hoped they would continue to do so, if they took them 
for that purpose. At this season is a great mala or religious 
festival, when pious Hindoos assemble to bathe at the junction 
of the Jumna and the Ganges. Their principal offering is 
their hair, which is shaved off on the spot. For every indi- 
vidual hair which falls into the sacred waters there is said to 
be secured an ete^'nity insurance of a million years of Paradise. 
We drove our carriage as near to the scene as the heavy 
sand would permit, and then to the river, transferred to an 
eckla, an indescribable vehicle, in which we sat in the middle, 
with our legs hanging over the sides. The point was gay 



QO TWO MONTHS' TRAVEL 

with tents and quaint flags, and was approached by long 
lines of booths combining the secular with the religious. The 
worshippers numbered thousands, and the most thriving trade 
seemed that of barber. There was a field of at least two acres 
which was full of barbers and their customers, who rapidly 
cleared the skulls on which they operated of all capillary sub- 
stances, except a bunch on top like the Pawnee Indian's scalp- 
lock. I didn't notice that much of it fell into the river, as there 
were small boys with bags collecting such of the shorn mate- 
rial as they found suitable. It is said to make excellent ropes 
for wells and other similar purposes. The devotees looked 
sheepish enough with their denuded polls, as they left the 
hands of the tonsorial artists to say their prayers, make an 
offering of flowers, and take a plunge into the river. We 
took a boat, and had an excellent view of the motley crowd, 
then toiled back through the hot sun and sand to our original 
carriage. Our reverend friend yesterday expressed his re- 
grets, apologetically, that, it being the Sabbath, his duties 
would prevent him from acting as our cicerone, but never- 
theless invited us to take tiffin with him at the N. W. Province 
Club. We found the club most comfortable and convenient, 
and the food and wines irreproachable. The serving of chops 
hot, with the gridiron on which they were cooked, was a new 
idea to me, and we must have sat at least three hours over 
our repast. 

Allahabad, January 27, 1873. 

This is a great railway junction, and, like some of our rail- 
road towns at home, is pretty much tyrannized over by the 
railroad powers. It takes here the most cruel form possible, 
in a tremendous steam-whistle, which three times a day, and 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. qi 

twenty minutes each time, blows as a signal to the employes. 
The first blast is at early daylight, and you are awakened by 
it and compelled to listen to the infernal shriek, until each five 
minutes seems an hour, lying in " speechless agony until your 
ear is numb." There is no use in protesting: it would take an 
act of Parliament to stop it. 

We took an early substantial breakfast with the parson, 
who, with another bachelor friend in the Educational Depart- 
ment, keeps a snug " chummery" not far from the hotel. He 
is a man of taste, has a nice garden and library, and gratified 
my Hartford pride by his high praise of Dr. Bushnell's ser- 
mons. I must say I have never read them myself, but nHm- 
porte, neither have I those of my ancestor, Jonathan Edwards. 
In his garden was a dry well, lined with niches, in which a ser- 
vant kept pigeons. He had them adorned with bangles on 
their legs, with names for each, and could make them fly and 
circle about by signal. 

The show-places here are the Garden of Koushroo, the rail- 
way bridge over the Jumna, and the old fort, with its arsenal 
anci subterranean temple. The latter is one of the specially 
holy places in India ; through it runs an invisible spiritual river, 
which flows into the junction of the Jumna and the Ganges. 
There are peculiarly sacred images of the gods, and a banyan- 
tree only four millions of years old, which neither grows nor 
shoots forth leaves. 

I was told that the present representation was brought in 
by the Brahmins last spring, by night, with the consent of the 
military authorities. The fact probably is that the temple was 
an old one, which was covered by the debris in building and 
excavating for the fort, and when it became damp and dirty its 



Q2 TWO MONTHS' TRAVEL 

sacred character was greatly enhanced. There is a companion 
monolith here to those of Benares and Delhi. We elected 
ourselves members of the club, and took our lunch and tiffin 
there, the parson always our guest. I intended to have men- 
tioned, in speaking of his bachelor establishment, that such is 
the division of labor in India that these two gentlemen could 
not keep house with a less number than eighteen servants. We 
bade our friend farewell at the train for Jubbelpore, 10.30 p.m. 

JuBBELPORE, January 28, 1873. 
We arrived at Kellner's Hotel in time for breakfast. When 
the bands of Thugs were rooted out they were concentrated 
here, placed under strict military guard, and set to work, with 
their women and children, in a large establishment, at making 
carpets and tents. Some of the older men have been kept in 
irons for more than thirty years, for murders committed, and a 
hard-looking set of rascals they are. Their children, however, 
are a jolly lot of "gamins," who don't look as though they 
would ever take to garroting as a profession. There is a gorge 
of the Nerbudda, called the "Marble Rocks," a few miles from 
the town, where the river has a fall of thirty feet and breaks 
throuo-h cliffs of marble and basalt. Tourists have wasted 
much ink in writing about the scenery, but it does not strike 
people very forcibly who, like ourselves, are recently from the 
Yosemite and Columbia River. The road was crowded with 
pilgrims going to and returning from the spot. Like all Indian 
rivers, the Nerbudda has its sacred attributes, and at certain 
" malas" its water is alternately used with that from the Ganges 
and Jumna in oblation to the gods. In fact, water would seem 
to be the visible type of Hindoo worship, as fire is that of the 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. 



Parsee. It constitutes his wealth and his luxury. It is the 
man's labor to supply it for irrigation to the fields, the woman's 
to provide it for the household. It produces his food, cleanses 
his scanty raiment, and, as a bath, invigorates, by its coolness, 
the body enervated by tropical heats, purifying the soul as well 
as the body. The bands of pilgrims move in compact march- 
ing order ; the bedding is folded across the body ; a pole car- 
ries jars covered with basket-work, in which the water is borne 
away. These are decorated with little flags, and some with a 
cross canopy, which protects the bearer from the sun. They 
bathe in the river, fill their pots therefrom, and then move in 
small processions from shrine to shrine, chanting songs and 
doing "pooja" at each, paying of course the essential fees to 
the Brahmin priests. They seemed jolly fellows, and would 
shout at or chaff us as our horses galloped through their camps, 
as we returned after dusk to the hotel at Jubbelpore. 

G. I. R. R. TO Bombay, January 29, 1873. 
We have lately been made somewhat anxious by the vicinity 
of Lord Hobart, the Governor of Madras, who, with his suite,, 
is making the tour of the Northwest Provinces, knowing that 
with such swells on hand we should be likely to get neither 
accommodation nor attention from hotel-keepers or railway 
officials. It was not therefore with much pleasure that we 
learned that the party occupied the train we were to take for 
Bombay, and that we could not avoid it without lying over. 
The result accorded with our expectations, as, instead of having 
a coach to ourselves as usual, we were obliged to be content 
with an inconvenient smoking-car, which was a thoroughfare 
for men and women, night and day. 

13 



gA TWO MONTHS' TRAVEL 

The country between Jubbelpore and the coast range is high, 
the soil thin, and the vegetation sparse and untropical. Crops 
of pulse and lentil seemed to flourish, in the midst of which, 
as scarecrows, were old water-jars on poles, whitewashed into 
an odd resemblance to turbans. The natives are rustic and 
simple, and as the train passed, women would cover their heads 
and turn their backs lest they should unveil their glimpses to 
the passing infidels. In one place the trees were full of 
monkeys, and it was funny to see them, chattering in terror, 
drop from the trees and scuttle away from the train. The 
stations along the road are remarkable for the good order in 
which they are kept, and the good taste displayed in the flower- 
beds around them. 

R. R. AND Bombay, January 30, 1873. 

After a very disturbed night, the morning found us in 
a rather unappreciative state amidst the scenery of the Ghauts. 
These singular mountains seem to be in terraces or steps (as 
their name implies), and some of the effects, forms, and land- 
scapes are very extraordinary and impressive. The road 
through the Thull Ghaut is a triumph of engineering. The 
gradients are very steep, and in one instance where there is 
no room for a curve, the train stops, and an engine is at- 
tached to what was its rear, and proceeds with it apparently 
in the same direction from which it had come. We arrived at 
Bycullah, the first station in Bombay, at about ten o'clock a.m., 
and here Lord Hobart left us, after being received with all the 
honors by troops and a mob of colonial dignitaries. In a few 
moments after, we were similarly received at the last station 
by an enthusiastic deputation of gharry-drivers and hotel-run- 
ners, so we promptly formed a procession, with Abdul and the 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. q^ 

luggage in the rear, and proceeded in state to the Esplanade 
Hotel. This is a tall, ungainly iron building, occupying the 
best corner of the best square in Bombay. One must climb 
two high stories before finding a sleeping-room, and these, for 
purposes of ventilation, have an opening between partition and 
ceiling of at least two feet, which most undesirably enables 
one to hear the most confidential disclosures between lodgers, 
— even man and wife. The proximity into which this brings 
the inmates quite justifies its being called a famiiy hotel, and it 
would be invaluable in the case of a betrothed youth who 
should desire to know whether his future repose was likely to 
be destroyed by the snoring of his intended. I expected to get 
home letters here, and didn't, and my disappointment quite 
destroyed my pleasure for the rest of the day. 

Bombay, January 31, 1873. 
I AWOKE this morning with one of my old-fashioned sick 
headaches, — the first that had mastered me since leaving 
California. I tried to fight it by going, early in the morning, 
to Crawford Market, an extensive structure, with a fine show 
of the edible productions of the country. After trying to eat 
some breakfast, I gave up, and subsided for the rest of the 
day. In to-day's paper I found a paragraph from Allahabad, 

which spoke of J and me, and of our having honored the 

place with a visit ; also stating that we were " loud in our 
praises of the progress being made in India under the sway 
of the Britishers." With what impertinence the English con- 
stantly put the latter word in our mouths ! I have never heard 
it used seriously except by Englishmen. 



96 



TWO MONTHS' TRAVEL 



Bombay, February i, 1873. 
I SHOOK my head on awaking this morning, and gladly- 
found that I had slept off the aching, so without discomfort I 
sallied out to breakfast. We had a letter to the American 
Consul, — a "fair, fat, and forty" fellow, also friendly, rather hard 
of hearing, and proud of representing " our ge-rate and ge- 
lorious" country. On occasions of ceremony he is said to get 
up his ponderous frame in the uniform of a post captain of 
the navy. I found some letters here addressed to his care, 
and met three American gentlemen with whom I left Calcutta, 
now just about to take their departure for Suez, content with 
having done India in three weeks. 

We took a long evening drive behind Farnum's four 
horses of at least twenty miles, and saw very favorably the 
surroundings of the city. 

Bombay, February 2, 1873. 

We took a small steam-tug early this morning with Farnum 
as guest and guide, and proceeded about six miles across the 
bay to the celebrated caves of Elephanta. On arriving near 
the shore, we found that Sir Philip Wodehouse, the Governor 
of Bombay, had been entertaining Lord Hobart with a picnic 
at this spot on the day before, and all the boats usually in at- 
tendance to help visitors ashore were engaged in transporting 
the paraphernalia of the fete to a government tug lying off 
the island. We asked as a favor that one of the boats should 
set us ashore on one of its return journeys ; but the crabbed 
cockney in charge utterly refused the accommodation, and we 
were obliged to push our tug as near in to shore as possible, and 
then submit ourselves to be carried on the shoulders of some 
slim natives, which, as can be imagined, was rather a ticklish 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. ^7 



job, involving imminent danger of a ducking. Fairly ashore, 
however, it was necessary for us to climb an immense stair- 
case under a melting sun, at the end of which the comparative 
coolness of the caves was quite refreshing. The stone ele- 
phants in front, from which the caves and island took their 
name, have long since disappeared, and time is from year to 
year working much havoc with the sculptures of the interior. 
The style is quite different from anything else in India. It 
is of massive, stern, Egyptian type. Considering the circum- 
stances under which they were executed, the supporting 
pillars and colossal figures in high relief are excellently pro- 
portioned, and the huge combined heads of Brahma the 
Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Siva the Destroyer are 
each very heroic and characteristic. We returned to the tug 
in the same way that we left it, with the addition of wet feet 
on my part, and arrived at the Apollo Bunder about noon. 
After my evening drive, I dined at the Adelphi Hotel, Bycullah, 

a favorite suburb of Bombay. 

Bombay, February 3, 1873. 

I DEVOTED this day to business. I overhauled and, with 
Abdul's assistance, repacked my luggage, selected the worth 
of about two hundred and fifty rupees in Bourne & Shepherd's 
Indian photographs, drew money on my letters of credit, paid 
my bills, including my Delhi purchases, and gave Farnum my 
model of the Taj in soapstone, which I intend for General 
Meigs, to be sent home by an American ship should one be 
found on these seas. I have a good deal of this kind of bread 
cast on the surface of the waters, for the return of which I 
shall ever pray. 

There is a fine public drive in Bombay, looking directly 



98 TWO MONTHS- TRAVEL 

out to sea, between what are called Coloba and Malabar 
Points. There is a band-stand for which the different military 
bands supply music, and it is the fashionable evening's amuse- 
ment for the carriage people to assemble there before the 
dinner hour, which is usually just after sunset. We are 
having soft moonlight nights, which I utilized by a satisfactory 
but solitary drive. 

It will be noticed in a journal in this country, that unless 
you go to a ball or linger at the house where you have dined, 
there is nothing done after dinner. After that hour you are 
not expected to call or drop in even upon your intimates. 
With the evident intention of discouraging visiting, calling 
hours are fixed at that broiling period between twelve o'clock 
noon and two p.m. Everybody in a large hotel is asleep by 
ten, but they make up for it by extreme early rising. No 
one sleeps after daylight. Before sunrise the energetic take, 
either on foot or on horseback, the exercise which alone in 
this climate preserves the liver, and everybody takes " chota 
hazree" or "little breakfast," which is supposed to fortify the 
stomach against malaria, and consists of tea or coffee, toast, and 

eggs. 

Bombay, February 4, 1873. 

When we left Calcutta, Colonel Earle, Military Secretary to 
Lord Northbrook, was kind enough to send us a package of 
letters to officials in most of the important stations in Upper 
India. We had little time, and, feeling very independent, as 
little inclination, to mix ourselves in formalities with pompous 
British swells. To show, however, that his kindness was not 
unappreciated, I went to Government House, and sent in my 
card and letter to Major Deane, who is Military Secretary to 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. 



99 



the Governor, and whose wife, like Colonel Earle's in Cal- 
cutta, does the honors of the house. Consul Farnum drove 
me thither. I was a little surprised at being received also by 
the Governor himself. Sir Philip Wodehouse, and we had a 
very pleasant chat of half an hour. In an evil moment I list- 
ened to the advice of an officer of the Governor's staff, who 
intimated that it was also my duty to leave my card upon the 
Commander-in-Chief, Sir (something) Spencer, who was living 
in camp on the Esplanade. My card was taken by a pert 
aide-de-camp, who told me that it was not his master's day for 
receiving, and asked if I had any special business with him. I 
replied that I had not the slightest desire to see his chief, and 
that my call was only formal, and drove off rather indignant, 
as I remembered what a different reception would have been 
granted any English officer at the headquarters of any Amer- 
ican general. 

In the evening, however, the general rode up to the carriage 
in which I sat listening to the band, asked to be introduced 
to me, and expressed his regret that he was not at home when 
I called, etc., etc. The undoubtedly aristocratic portion of the 
English army are, like gentlemen all the world over, polite and 
considerate, but the average officer is a puppy of a mild type. 
In my gushing days I used to entertain these a great deal, 
shared my blankets with them, gave them to eat and drink 
of my best, and my horses to ride, as long as they should 
choose to hang about my headquarters ; but that sort of thing 
is now played out, and it is very litde trouble I have given 
myself of late in entertaining those gentlemen. Our litde 
French friend, Bienville, who came with us from Java, turned 
up to-day at our hotel, and sails on the next steamer for 



lOO '^Vl^O MONTHS' TRAVEL 

France, a country for which he has a very bad case of home- 
sickness. He thinks "very small bee" of India, even of the 
more ancient monuments, and sighs for what Clarence King 
calls " French vittals." 

Bombay, P'ebruary 5, 1873. 

Having been for some time annoyed by a succession of 
" Job's comforters," which made exercise not only difficult but 
impracticable, and as my compagnon de voyage desires to go 
to Madras by rail, making excursions off the road at certain 
points, I have concluded to go down by sea to Baypore on the 
next British India steamer, and pick him up somewhere on the 
railroad between that point and Madras. I went to the train 
to see him off, and made up my mind to be "as lonely as a 
borrowed pup" until we should again come together. 

Fortune favored me, however, and on my return to my 
hotel I found Todhunter, one of the best Englishmen I have 
met on my travels, looking me up. He comes to Bombay to 
start for Australia and New Zealand, where he has property. I 
have discovered a good restaurant on the Apollo Bunder ; we 
adjourned thither for tiffin, and then drove to the hospital for 
sick animals. It was a queer place, and extended into several 
courts. Sick and stray animals of all species are sent there, and 
the expenses of their keeping and cure are defrayed by native 
subscriptions. Once taken in, they are not permitted again 
to visit the outer world. It was quite a zoological collection, 
— Indian cows with the curved humps predominating, — many 
with badly broken and dislocated limbs. There were also dogs, 
horses, donkeys, fowls, monkeys, and even a sick porcupine. 
Most of the granivorous animals were sleek and fat; but the 
dogs, not being allowed meat, were a sorry mangy lot indeed. 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. jqi 

We aeain drove out this evening', when we saw and smelt 
the enclosure where Hindoo bodies are burned, and at a dis- 
tance I saw the noted " Hill of Silence," where the Parsees 
expose, upon gratings, the remains of their relatives, to be 
devoured by crows and vultures, the bones, when sufficiently 
picked, dropping into a vault beneath. We also saw a fire- 
temple illuminated for a Parsee wedding. It was simply a 
building open at the sides, covering three sides of a court, 
with three rows of lights in the interior. 

Bombay, February 6, 1873. 
Bombay is the brightest and most cheerful city I have seen 
in India. When they thought that our war was going to last 
forever, and that the world must be supplied with cotton from 
that port, they spent a great deal of money in paint and corner 
lots. The surface covered by the city is large, and, having no 
dread of earthquakes before their eyes, the buildings are run 
up seven and eight stories in height. The equipages of Euro- 
peans and Parsees are handsome, and the carriage-horses 
really fine, being generally of Arab breed. New elements 
of population aggregate at this point, and Persians, Arabs, 
and Africans give another type to costume. This has a tend- 
ency to the gorgeous. Much "kincob" or gold embroidery is 
worn, and the turbans of almost the poorest class are spangled 
with it. The women walk the streets unveiled, and wear a 
costume which shows the figure. The Parsee, or "fire-wor- 
shipper," is the feature of Bombay. It is said that there are 
fifty thousand in the city. They are a comely race, particularly 
the w^omen and children; their features and eyes are Jewish, 
as are their money making and keeping characteristics. The 

14 



I02 '^WO MONTHS' TRAVEL 

rich have fine houses, keep the best of horses, entertain sump- 
tuously, and some are munificently public-spirited ; in gratitude 
for this some of them have received the honor of English 
knighthood. The younger ones, like English lads, play much 
at cricket. The men conform in most respects to European 
costume, but their religion makes them persistently retain a 
peculiar brown papier-mache mitre, which, like the Chinese pig- 
tail, was at first imposed upon them as a badge of servitude 
by some dominant and oppressive race. They marry but one 
wife, and are the kindest of husbands and fathers. Their 
custom of leaving their dead to be devoured as carrion by the 
birds of the air is their most unpleasant feature. I received 
to-day an invitation to an evening party at the Governor's, 
but indisposition of mind and body, and a certain lack of desire 
to meet a lot of people whom I should never see again, in- 
duced me to send my regrets. Let me here remark that I 
find a very bad tone in Indian society, in the way Englishmen 
publicly pick over and scandalize ladies, when they get together 
at clubs and elsewhere. As some honest American told them, 
" If you should want to talk like that about ladies in St. Louis, 
you would better have your coffins ordered for the next morn- 
ing!" I have two invitations to dinner on the 7th, one from 
the gentleman whom Todhunter is visiting, and another from 
an American doctor, who was surgeon to Warren's Zouaves, 
brigaded with me when I was colonel of the ist Connecticut. 
He Is rather an injudicious party, and has shocked colonial 
society in violating their notions of propriety by some of his 
escapades. It does not interfere with his practice, however, 
which is among the natives, and lucrative. They are getting 
up an exhibition in Bombay, and an Englishman on the com- 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. 



103 



mittee for hanging pictures told me that one of the best 
shown was a portrait of Lincoln, by Huntington, belonging 
to a Parsee, who had purchased it at a high figure while on a 
tour in the United States. 

Bombay, February 7, 1873. 

Among the sojourners at the Esplanade Hotel I thought 
I discovered a familiar face, and when the owner of it spoke 
to me I found it belonged to an Irishman from New Orleans, 
named O'Brien, who occupied the state-room next to mine 
when I crossed on the Scotia in 1868, and whom I afterwards 
met in Egypt. He has been travelling ever since, and has ex- 
plored many out-of-the-way places, both Arctic and Torrid. 

Was made happy by the receipt of home letters. Tod- 
hunter is trying to arrange it to go down the coast with me, 
which would be very pleasant, considering how much we have 
been together since leaving San Francisco. 

We drove out in the afternoon, and took dinner, at which 
the third American was a handsome young captain of an 
English steamer. " Where'er I roam, whatever lands I see," 
I always prefer the society of Americans, if I can get it. On 
the other hand. Englishmen are not ordinarily good company. 
You never hear from them an original idea, or a new story, 
and their mode of listening conveys to you the disagreeable 
idea that they are paying attention, not to luhat you say, but 
to the way in which you say it. 

Bombay, February 8, 1873. 

As it is my last day at Bombay, I pack up and pay my bills. 
Todhunter bids me farewell, as he fears missing the connec- 
tion at Point de Galle with the Australian steamer, and takes 
the P. and O. Doolittle takes a parting lunch with me at the 



lOA ^^O MONTHS' TRAVEL 

Apollo Bunder. I make a bargain with a half-caste for twelve 
annas to set me on board ship with my luggage. Fairly on 
the boat, I asked him, " Have you told the boatman how much 
I pay ?" He replied, coolly, " Oh, yes ; pay him twelve annas, 
one rupee, all the same." I find myself very comfortable on the 
British steamer Satara; the cabin is good, passengers few, and we 
sail a little before sundown. 

At Sea, February 9 to 12. 

A SMOOTH sea, pleasant days and moonlight nights, a com- 
fortable and uncrowded ship, and comparative repose after 
hard successive travelling by land, made the voyage seem 
very agreeable. The Malabar coast is high, and in some 
places mountainous, its whole length bordered by a fringe 
of cocoanut palms, which grow close down to the very water's 
edge, and the Ghauts, with their fantastic forms, are constantly 
on the horizon. Except Carwar, to which a railroad for ship- 
ping cotton is projected, there is no harbor the whole distance. 
We made some eight ports during our passage, and, with the 
exception named, goods and passengers were at each trans- 
ferred to and from the ship through a white wall of breakers, 
which, from sea, was apparently impenetrable, but through 
which the specially-constructed native boats (missulas) found 
their way with great apparent ease. Except some troops and 
their officers, whom we took on our last day, there were but 
five passengers in all, and one of these left us half-way to Car- 
war. This one was an intelligent, observant gentleman, with 
a soft modulated voice like that of my chief. General Meigs, 
who told me much about the natives and their odd ideas. 
They think that if a boat sails far enough south it will come 
to a high wall, which is the end of the world, upon which no 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. jqc 

man dare climb, for if he looks over he must inevitably fall off 
En route thither is passed a kind of native Paradise, where 
to get rid of their superfluity and abundance the inhabitants 
"pay men to eat up the rice." They think that the movement 
of a locomotive or a steamer is caused by a god, which the 
superior power of the European has imprisoned within the 
machine ; that the forces of the divinity are aroused by roast- 
ing him ; and they are sure he is there, because they have fre- 
quently heard his puffs, groans, and even shrieks ! They 
express an odd preference for the old days of despotism and 
irregularity. One said, " Before you Englishmen came and 
established mails, every now and then in a town silk would 
become scarce; then a man who had a 'seer' of silk could sell 
it for forty rupees. Now, in such a case, they write a letter, 
and more comes in three days." Another says, " In old times, 
a king, while walking in the early morning, met a poor man. 
His majesty says, ' You are very poor ?' The reply was, 
' That is very true.' So the king gave him a thousand rupees." 
He adds, with a sigh, "We don't have such times now." I 
was sorry when my friend left us, as I didn't take kindly to 
the rest of the passengers. One was a very green English- 
man belonging to the educational branch. He hadn't two 
ideas in his, head, and I used to catch him using his fingers 
for a pocket-handkerchief on the sly. Teaching manners was 
evidently not his specialty. The other was the wife of some 
English officer, who was going to some "hill" station by sea 
while her husband marched with troops by land. Her escort 
was a native maid (ayah), a dog, and a parrot. Between the 
screams of the bird and the barking of the animal and the 
shouting for and scolding of the maid by the mistress, there 



I06 '^^O MONTHS' TRAVEL 

was no peace for one's life. The voice of the latter was of 
the loudest, and everybody on the ship had the benefit of her 
conversation while it was in progress. She had actually 
taught the parrot to utter a sound resembling " chug — chug — 
chug," which accomplishment, with that of her dog, who had 
actually learned to bark, was constantly exhibited. The trial 
of temper to a quiet traveller who likes his nap may be 
imagined. Her table-talk displayed none of that fastidious 
prudery for which my fair countrywomen are censured. Her 
delicate sense could not bear the smells of the ship, which 
she declared were like those of a " main drain." She would 
describe with great minuteness the ravages of ants on her 
person ; gave interesting statistics with regard to slaughter- 
houses in the vicinity of Bombay ; told how long at her last 
station meat would keep before getting " nasty and high ;" and 
complained of her seat at table, as she averred that her legs 
were so short that she couldn't reach the floor. After stand- 
ing this kind of thing for four days, I felt that I needed change. 

R. R. FROM Baypore to Madras, February 13, 1873. 
We arrived at Baypore by daylight, and Abdul was smart 
enough to catch the first boat which came off to the ship, its 
crew surging through the breakers. I stowed myself and traps 
therein, said farewell to nobody, "as nobody did to I," and 
struck out for shore. It was my first experience in breakers, 
and the skill of the navigators was marvellous. Baypore is 
a pretty native town, with apparently nothing European about 
it except the hotel and station, which are close to the beach. 
It is picturesquely embowered in palms, with a background of 
blue hills. I find a telegram from J at the station, ap- 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. ' 107 

pointing Bangalore as a rendezvous on Saturday (the day of 
my arrival being Thursday). Evidently he does not suppose I 
can get down so early by a day or more : so I conclude to surprise 
him by picking him up at Madras, where I suppose him to be. 
The train starts at eight o'clock a.m. The day is cool and pleas- 
ant ; the road leads through beautiful scenery at the foot of the 
Neilgherry Hills on both sides. All the natives are busy with 
the rice-culture, — flooding the fields, irrigating with scoops and 
a kind of see-saw with a bucket at one end, ploughing, and, in 
some cases, men and oxen treading out the last year's crop. 
As first-class passengers are scarce, I have a whole compart- 
ment to myself, where I can loll or sleep as I choose, and I 
am not unhappy. 

Madras, February 14, 1873. 

From daylight until we reached Madras, at about nine a.m., 
the whole country was flooded into a lake for rice-planting. 
It seems strange enough to one who has lived in South Caro- 
lina, where the vicinity of a rice-field was supposed to be 
certain death to the unacclimated white man, that no one here 
complains of it or fears the malarious effects of the sun upon 
the overflowed soil. The Madras station is close to the sea, 
and the road by which we drove to the Hotel Royal led along 
almost the whole length of the harbor, if an open roadstead 
with a stiff line of breakers all along the beach can be called 
so. Our hotel is the old Government House, and has exten- 
sive grounds prettily laid out. After bath and breakfast, I 
start out to find my friend's whereabouts. I inquired about 
him at Arbuthnot & Co., his bankers, and at Atkins' Hotel, 
where he lodged, and learned that he had gone to Conje- 
veram, and concluded that by an early start on the following 



I08 T'^O MONTHS' TRAVEL 

day I should catch him at some point along the railway. The 
Zoological Gardens at Madras are the best I have seen in 
India. The animals seem as lively and healthy as they would 
be in a state of freedom. A native keeper, by stirring up the 
animal in a peculiarly facetious manner with a pole, treated 
me to a roar of laughter from the hyena. It was, of course, 
particularly musical and contagious, but I think it would make 
a traveller's hair stand on end if suddenly uttered very close 
to him on a lonely road after dark. 

I visited some Hindoo temples, of which the architecture 
is quite different from that in the Punjaub or Northern India. 
They greatly affect queer pyramidal spires over the gates, 
which they call gopuums. These are often twelve and four- 
teen stories in height, and are covered with grotesque designs 
in high relief While buying some photographs, the English 
salesman proved himself to have, as a pretty good guesser, the 
elements of Yankee in him, by asking if I was not the friend 

of a gentleman named J . He said he thought so because 

we " talked alike." It was an oppressively hot night, and to 
get air and keep off mosquitoes I was compelled to hire boys 
to pull the punka over me all night, — an Oriental degree of 
luxury to which I had not previously attained, but I found 
it so real a comfort, and so cheap withal, that I had it every 
night when I needed it during the remainder of my stay in 

the country. 

Madras and R. R., February 15, 1873. 

My "balmy." of last night was only disturbed by the noc- 
turnal shrieks of the flying foxes, which are here in much 
greater numbers than at Umritsur. I turned out early and 
took train for Banoalore. There are several branch roads 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. 109 

which lead into the main one, and as I came in succession to the 
stations at the several junctions, I looked along the platforms 

expecting to see J 's familiar face. Failing entirely to do so, 

I was greatly disappointed, as I had closely calculated his move- 
ments and those of the trains, and had concluded that he must 
join the train I was on somewhere on the road. I was not a little 
at a loss to discover the mistake in my reasoning. On arriving 
at Bangalore, however, I found him there before me, and he ex- 
plained that he did not come down from Conjeveram by train at 
all, but was pushed down by man-power, on a trolly (or hand-car, 
as we should call it), and was thus enabled to take an earlier train 

to Bangalore. 

Bangalore, February 16, 1873. 

This is a military and sanitary station, high up among the 
Neilgherry Hills, possessing most of the year a charming and 
healthy climate, and by many is much preferred to the sanita- 
riums among the Himalayas, which are afflicted in summer 
with dampness and heavy rains. The best part of the town 
is very English, and the cantonments of the troops are quite 
extensive. As usual. Bangalore has a public garden and a 
collection of animals. Among these was a specimen of the 
Tasmanian devil, about which I had lately read a magazine 
article describing him as being one of the most fierce and in- 
tractable of wild beasts. He was an ugly creature, like an 
exaggerated, short black cat, with eyes like coals of fire. We 
went over the ruins of the palace of Tippoo Sahib, which was 
in bad general condition, and probably not very fine in its 
best days. After church we called upon Mrs. Scott, formerly 
Madame Bodisco, who was an old Washington belle. She still 
retains her handsome eyes and agreeable manners. She has two 

IS 



no TWO MONTHS' TRAVEL 

pretty Bodisco daughters, — Alhamar and Olga, and a son is now 
visiting her who is a subaltern in the Russian Imperial Guards, 

From him I learn that my St. Petersburg friends, the K s, 

have lately come badly to grief in a pecuniary way by losses 
incurred in the construction of railways. We looked over some 
specimens of Trichinopoly jewelry, which were very handsome, 
and, queerly enough, cheaper and more abundant than in the 

city where they are manufactured. J made some valuable 

investments therein. We took train for Trichinopoly at half-past 
eight o'clock p.m. 

Madras R. R., Monday, February 17, 1873. 

I WOKE up to a hot morning after a severely uncomfortable 
night. The road is rough, owing to the sleepers being of cast 
iron, the only practicable material which the white ants cannot 
eat. I think the English might with benefit take a leaf from 
our book on the subject of travel over long routes. A night 
spent in one of these compartments is gentle torture. The 
train is slow and unpunctual, and is loaded down with pilgrims 
en route to the great festival at the temples of Comberconum. 
We arrived about three hours behind time at Trichinopoly, 
where we found nothing in the shape of conveyance at the 
station, and were obliged to wait an hour in a fearful crowd, to 
be taken to the meanest hotel we have yet struck. The propri- 
etor was so poor that Abdul was obliged to advance him money 
in order to buy us meat and drink. At sundown parade, the 
band of the adjacent cantonment beat off with " Dixie." As I 
constituted all the United States troops present, I could not 
march over and avenge the insult, but I felt very much like it. 
The night was hot, but I was kept tolerably comfortable by 
the exertions of two men, at a cost of about twenty cents. 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. ]_ j i 

Trichinopoly, February i8, 1873. 
We took an early start, and visited tlie temples of Siva 
on the island of Seringham, some of the finest in India. A 
Brahmin in the employ of the railroad was our guide. Within 
a square of which each side extends nearly half a mile, are 
some fifteen lofty pyramidal gateways, and a large hall said to 
contain a thousand pillars. On the exterior are some remark- 
able caryatides of men on horseback, of which I have photo- 
graphs. The priests are extremely bigoted and insolent in 
their refusal to permit us to see the interior of the temple ; 
but we are conducted across a roof, and then along the coping 
of a high wall, Avhere we enjoy the high privilege of seeing 
through an opera-glass the gilded top of the deity's head. 
We were told that this was all that was accorded to the Gov- 
ernor of Madras when he visited the temples. I wonder that 
the government will allow such hiding-places as this might be 
made for criminals or conspirators to exist in its midst. In 
Southern India there is great rivalry and strife between the 
Brahmins of Vishnu and Siva (two impersonations of Brahma), 
as with us exists between Catholics and Protestants. Each 
have their own marks, which they daub on between their eyes, 
extending upward to the forehead. This mark they even put 
on their sacred elephants. Some of the latter are attached 
to each temple, and they are taught to salaam visitors by lifting 
the trunk and trumpeting. Their drivers derive income from 
their picking up with their trunks small coin thrown on the 
ground before them, a feat which they perform with much 
dexterity. The remarkable feature of Trichinopoly is "the 
Rock," a great denuded hill, which has been cut into and built 
over with temples. It has flights of stairs to the top, where 



112 TWO MONTHS' TRAVEL 

the view is fine. It is a hard climb, as I can aver from per- 
sonal experience. We did our best to purchase some of the 
jewelry of the country, but, as is the case everywhere, the best 
product is sent to be sold elsewhere as soon as finished. 

Tanjore and Trichinopoly, February 19, 1873. 
We took the early train this morning for Tanjore. We 
were amused by our guide of yesterday, who not only wished 
from us the usual testimonial, but had it already written out for 
our signature. I am free to own that the fellow knew more 
of his own merits than I had been able to discover during 
our brief acquaintance. I signed, however. An American 
can't resist a testimonial or a subscription paper. We ar- 
rived at Tanjore at about half-past eight. A dak bungalow 
is the only accommodation for travellers here ; in fact, tourists 
do not often visit Southern India, and there is little preparation 
for their reception. We were guided to the building by a 
European policeman, who advised me, as the best way of doing 
the sights, to call upon Mr. Cadell, the Collector and principal 
functionary of the district, and ask for carriage and horses 
from the stables of the late Rajah. On sending in my card 
I was received very cordially, and immediately promised a 
carriage and a pass and guide through the Rajah's palace. I 
also received a pressing invitation to dine with the Collector 
the same evening, a civility which I accepted for both of us 
with cheerful promptness. The conveyance arriving at our 
bungalow in due time, we drove in it to the palace. The late 
Rajah was celebrated for his religious liberality, and his taste 
for literature and art. He was something of a poet, and a 
remarkable friendship existed between himself and the mis- 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. n, 

sionary Schwartz, who -had great influence with him, and was 
of much service in his diplomacy with the EngHsh government. 
His audience-hall was adorned with a statue of his father, by 
Chantrey, for which, as a nabob, he had to pay a swingeing 
price for a piece of work of not very high order. His library 
was very valuable, and, in addition to a good English and 
French collection, it contained rare copies, in books and manu- 
script, of the Vedas and other Hindoo sacred writings. Some 
were on palm-leaves and opened and closed like the sticks of 
a fan, and some of the volumes were beautifully illuminated 
and illustrated. We were shown a large collection of the 
paraphernalia formerly used on grand occasions, such as gilt 
hats and robes, great fans of state, gold and silver sticks, 
and elephants' saddles (howdahs), with housings stiff with the 
precious metals. The jewels of the crown were locked up in 
the treasury, under charge of Mr. Cadell, who is guardian for 
the seven surviving queens and the endless number of royal 
children, and manages their estates and incomes. We were 
taken into cages where were chained tigers and leopards ; 
but a very little of the smell and vicinity of the brutes was 
enough to content me. The great temple, one of the purest 
and loftiest in India, is about fourteen stories in height. Among 
the ornaments were pointed out to us an undeniable Quaker, 
with his broad-brimmed hat, and a European woman, with an 
old-fashioned bonnet, which our credulous guide informed us 
were designed by the ancient architect as a prophecy that 
the English must one day rule this part of India. The fact 
is, however, that during the war with Hyder Ali the temple 
was profaned and occupied as a barrack by British troops, 
and the illusion was probably created by the transformation 



II A TWO MONTHS' TRAVEL 

of some of the original figures by a waggish soldier with his 
pot of paint. There were some colossal bulls of black marble 
within the enclosure, the largest kept particularly shiny and 
greasy by the quantities of ghee (or butter-oil) poured over 
it by worshippers. The oleaginous substance is not, however, 
quite wasted, as a spout on one side of the platform carries 
off the surplus to a tank, and it then becomes a perquisite 
of the priests. Of course, like Moore's Peri disconsolate at 
the gate of Eden, we were compelled to stand outside the 
temple, and were not permitted to explore the glories of 
the interior. 

On our afternoon's drive we were shown, lying on the 
ramparts of the city wall, one of the largest guns I have 
ever seen. It was a long cylinder of iron wedges, with great 
wrought-iron bands shrunk over them. Its length was twenty- 
three feet, and its bore twenty-two inches. I don't remember 
the dimensions of the celebrated bronze Turkish gun on the 
Kremlin, but this weapon seemed even larger than that. The 
bore, however, is very irregular, and I doubt its ever having 
been fired : if it should be, I don't think, with free volition, that 
I should remain in the vicinity. 

We were shown a signal-tower in communication with a 
series of others through the province, and also with the temple, 
from which the priests were accustomed to flash semaphore 
signals over the whole country when the god had finished his 
dinner, after which the rulers and people were kindly permitted 
to eat theirs. We had a comfortable dinner at the Collector's, 
and were not at all displeased to find the wine cooled by home- 
made machine ice. Although it is February, a punka at night 
is a necessary of life. 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. jje 

Tanjore, February 20, 1873. 
We turned out at daylight, and the Collector kindly placed 
himself and horses at our disposal to see the town. We find 
him a most worthy and zealous public ofiicer. He has risen 
regularly through the several grades of the civil service, knows 
the wants of the people, and devotes his whole time to thought 
and labor for the good of his district. His long service permits 
him to retire on a pension this year, a privilege of which he is 
about to avail himself in a few weeks. In our visit to the 
public garden, he pointed out to us a specimen of that bloated 
excrescence called the baobab-tree, only about twenty feet high, 
and nearly as many in girth. In a church near by he showed 
us a monument to Schwartz, with a memorial bas-relief, by 
Flaxman, representing the Rajah visiting the missionary's death- 
bed. I did not like on it the poetic license which made them 
for convenience in grouping grasp each other by the left hand. 
We then inspected the native jail, kept in excellent order, 
where the prisoners were employed in beating the fibre called 
" coir" from the husk of cocoanuts. They also weave matting, 
carpets, and linens. A Brahmin priest was confined for forgery, 
which, Mr. Cadell says, is the crime of the educated classes. 
He had lately been called upon to deal with a very aggravated 
case among the native missionaries. We have the public 
bungalow quite to ourselves ; the house is new and clean, the 
servants attentive, and the cooking far from bad. Its accom- 
modations are quite superior to half the hotels in the upper 
country, and we begin to think that we own the establishment, 
forgetting the rule that if other travellers come along, after 
having stayed a day, we must vacate and seek quarters else- 
where. As I was taking my afternoon siesta, I was aroused by 



jl5 - ^^O MONTHS' TRAVEL 

the thump of luggage deposited on the piazza. I listened, and 
concluded from his voice that the interloper was an American, 
and, on making reconnoissance through the blinds, was grati- 
fied to see that the new-comer was M , our Boston fellow- 
traveller. Fear of ejection vanished, and to share with him 
our bed and board was not disagreeable. So we lit cigars and 
spent the afternoon in comparing notes, until the hour arrived 
for us to take our last dinner with Mr. Cadell, whose hospitality 

I trust we duly appreciated. 

Negapatam, February 21, 1873. 

This morning we pack up our duds and leave the bungalow 
for the station, from which we are to take our last journey by 
rail in India. Our destination is Negapatam, the terminus of 
the railroad on the Coromandel coast. We have been pre- 
pared, by accounts, to find it the meanest place in the world, 
and for this reason have stayed away until the last moment ; but 
now we must be off, to allow us a little margin on the time of 
arrival of the coast steamer. We chose the least among evils 
in the way of inns, and took possession of an unpromising, 
sweltering-looking place called the "British Hotel," awaiting the 
worst. Tiffin came, however, and the food and cooking proved 
good. We hired boys to fan us by day and night, and our 
prospects for worrying through twenty-four hours seemed to 
improve. About sundown we took a bandy, or cart, with two 

fast trotting bullocks, and reviewed the town. J was 

struck with a happy thought: he had seen the dancing-girls 
at Conjeveram, and approved the performance, which he also 
wished me to witness. He asked the landlord if we couldn't 
have a nautch at the hotel. He replied with great alacrity that 
we could, and that Negapatam was celebrated for its music 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. 



117 



and dancers. We were the only guests in the house, and 
after dinner all the arrangements were completed. It must be 
remembered that these girls are especially trained to dance 
before the idols, and there was a queer touch of the religious 
in the preparations. Beautiful scarfs, artistically arranged, 
made of that sacred flower, the marigold, were provided, as 
were also bouquets for us to present to such performers as 
gratified us. Chains of white jessamine flowers (also sacred) 
were ready, to be worn by the guests present; also a large 
silver sprinkler filled with rose-water, to be used for the per- 
fuming of room and dancers. The litde parlor was brilliandy 
lighted. Our seats were under an arched doorway, where we 
could see and still enjoy the coolness of the punka behind 
us, and as we lolled in easy-chairs, smoking our cigars, we felt 
like rajahs, or nabobs at least. The musical accompaniment 
consisted of a clarionet, a kettle-drum, castanets, and cymbals. 
The performer on the latter is the fugleman of the whole, — a 
tall fellow, full of grimace, with a white turban, one corner of 
which rises above his left ear like a plume, or nods in unison 
with his energetic accompaniment of voice and hand. An 
overture of bizarre but not unpleasing music, and then the per- 
former of the troupe, the nautch-girl herself, glides to the front. 
She is a dusky, graceful, well-moulded girl of about fifteen. 
Her head is covered with a close cap of jessamine flowers. 
She has eyes liquid and lustrous, pretty mouth, and white 
teeth, and a large ring of gold hangs from one nostril ; her neck 
is loaded with heavy gold ornaments and beads. She wears 
long, dangling ear-rings, and a kind of vest with stripes of 
gold, bracelets also, and heavy gold armlets above the elbow. 
A robe of white muslin, embroidered with silver, is caught by 

16 



Ilg TWO MONTHS' TRAVEL 

a girdle, and extends to her feet, of which the ankles were 
hidden by encircling rings covered with little bells. She comes 
forward, salaams gracefully the masters of the feast, receives 
her flowers and her sashes of marigolds, and places the last 
across her shoulder; she steps back, is rose-water-sprinkled, 
the music strikes up, and the dance commences. To give an 
idea of the movement would be as difficult as to describe the 
rippling of water or the motion of the air. It was perfectly 
natural and graceful, and entirely modest. I think some of 
our female gymnasts who bounce so awkwardly about the 
stage should be sent to India to take a lesson in the grace of 
their art. The action and expression of the eyes, the head, 
the neck, and the arms constituted the dance. The lower 
limbs were little called upon for display beyond their use in 
posing and kneeling. They certainly performed no skyward, 
Terpsichorean flights. It was only as the music waxed fiercer 
and wilder that the girl performed a kind of double shuffle, 
which made her ankle-bells rattle like twenty castanets. The 
music was a fit and spirited accompaniment. All the orchestra 
sang except the clarionet, who could not well do so, and it was 
beautiful in the more excited parts to see our friend with the 
white turban following close behind the dancer, leaning over 
her or stooping down at her side and gazing up at her face 
with well-affected admiration, and at rapid periods coming out 
with thrilling power on his instruments. The whole entertain- 
ment was most novel and Oriental, and was a full expression 
of my preconceived ideas with regard to the Bayaderes of the 
East. The spectators who understood the pantomime were 
enchanted. The principal artiste was most indefatigable; when 
she did not dance she sang solo or joined in the choruses, and 



IN BRITISH AND FARTHER INDIA. uq 

seemed a little disappointed when we dismissed the troupe at 
about eleven o'clock. When our purpose of ending the per- 
formance was understood, they asked permission to sing one 
more song. The " Prima" and an elder dancing-girl seated 
themselves on the floor, and sang a plaintive air, of which 
Abdul translated the burden to mean, — 

"It is getting late, 
The poor nautcli-girl is tired. 
Will the sahib permit her to salaam 
And to wish him good sleep?" 

Our entertainment seemed quite an event in Negapatam. 
I think all the Europeans in the place invited themselves in, 
as did many Baboos and natives. I imagine they hoped to 
have a night of it, and were disappointed at our " early closing 
movement." 

Negapatam, February 22, 1873. 

On turning out this morning, we were disappointed in not 
finding our steamer in port. To kill time we hired a trap, and 
went over to look at a mosque about five miles off, at a place 
called Nagoor. The drive was pretty, but the structure nothing 
to speak of. Returning, we picked up a snake-charmer, with his 
band of musicians, and made him give us a private performance. 
He exhibited a fine hooded cobra, caused him to dance and to 
hold his head in the air until he could touch it with his toneue. 
He also gave us a very quaint dance with puppets, which he 
placed on his hands and gyrated to appropriate music. 

About sundown the welcome sound of a gun announced the 
arrival of the British India steamer Bagdad, and we made ar- 
rangements to be put on board. Our luggage and ourselves 



I 20 '^^O MONTHS' TRA VEL IN INDIA. 

were stowed into a surf-boat. It was after dark as we dashed 
through the surf, our crew chanting in chorus. Every break 
of the waves and each dip of the oar made the water gleam 
with phosphorescence. The night was soft and delicious, and 
as we go up the side of the ship, a parting look at the land 
dimly reveals the long plumes of the palms waving slowly 
against the sky. Fairly on board, everybody was civil and 
attentive. A nice supper was soon spread before us. Ice 
specially shipped from Madras added greatly to its enjoyment. 
Steam was up, and as we got under way we drank in cham- 
pagne two toasts. To the first, as good Americans, we were in 
duty bound : it was, 

" Washington's Birthday !" 

and the other was, 

" Farewell to India." 



This journal was written by General Tyler for the eyes of his immediate family 
only, with no idea that it would ever appear in print. The personal allusions and 
criticisms which it contains, although in no sense ill-natured or calculated to wound 
the feehngs of those referred to, would possibly have been omitted or altered by 
him had he foreseen their publication. It is deemed essential now, however, that 
they be retained, as showing his views and impressions more characteristically than 
changes in the text made by another could. 

The Editor. 



